In Paul Pain’s article “Two Years of Free Community College” tells about President Obama’s proposal to make community college free for two years for students. This would provide a higher education to be more accessible to people who want to further their education. Pain quotes Obama, “To make sure that community college was accessible to everyone…free for everybody who’s willing to work for it” (Para 2). The plan was based upon Tennessee’s Promise, where ninety percent of its 60,000 graduates from high school from 2013 were signed up by the state for a new scholarship for community college (Pain para 7). The America’s College Promise would consist of the federal government paying seventy-five percent of the average cost of community college
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According to Valerie Strauss’s article, “The problem(s) with Obama’s community college plan – and an alternative,” she states that the plan would cost sixty billion dollars over a ten-year period and that the money would be better used to expand existing federal programs, such as Pell Grant (Para 4). The plan was to benefit the students who are in need of financial aid to be able to attain a higher education that is affordable for them. But, at the same time students who are well-off are also able to attend community college free for two years. Pain quotes, “…making tuition free for all students, regardless of their income is a missed opportunity to focus resources on the students who need aid the most” (Para 26). There are other expenses, such as living, food, books, transportation, and possible child care, that students have to worry about as well when it comes to attending …show more content…
There could be competition in between four year colleges and community colleges. Students would have limited options on where they attend and not all states would need to participate, thus, community college won’t be accessible equally. Others may oppose the plan and believe the money should be put towards extending existing financial programs like Pell Grant. The plan does not guarantee a student to receive a degree within the two-year time period. Lastly, it is not only tuition that students worry about, but there are other expenses that are involved when attending college. So, even though there are good points to making community college free there are still some flaws that would need to be
According to Valerie Strauss’s article, “The problem(s) with Obama’s community college plan – and an alternative,” she states that the plan would cost sixty billion dollars over a ten-year period and that the money would be better used to expand existing federal programs, such as Pell Grant (Para 4). The plan was to benefit the students who are in need of financial aid to be able to attain a higher education that is affordable for them. But, at the same time students who are well-off are also able to attend community college free for two years. Pain quotes, “…making tuition free for all students, regardless of their income is a missed opportunity to focus resources on the students who need aid the most” (Para 26). There are other expenses, such as living, food, books, transportation, and possible child care, that students have to worry about as well when it comes to attending …show more content…
There could be competition in between four year colleges and community colleges. Students would have limited options on where they attend and not all states would need to participate, thus, community college won’t be accessible equally. Others may oppose the plan and believe the money should be put towards extending existing financial programs like Pell Grant. The plan does not guarantee a student to receive a degree within the two-year time period. Lastly, it is not only tuition that students worry about, but there are other expenses that are involved when attending college. So, even though there are good points to making community college free there are still some flaws that would need to be