Free College for Everybody

President Obama would like to make community college available free of charge to everybody. He will provide details of the proposal during his state of the union address later this month. The cost will be approximately $60 billion dollars over the next 10 years. Students will be required to attend classes at least half-time and maintain a 2.5 (C+) grade point average.

Let the fighting begin.

I think the President may be on to something, simply because the criticism is coming from the liberals and the conservatives. Whenever that happens, there has to be something in there for everybody to like.

The conservatives are pissed because Obama has something to do with it, but they are also complaining about “federalizing higher education”, “another entitlement program”, and “spending money we don’t have”.

The liberals are complaining because they feel that the program should be for “those that need it most, the economically deprived, not the middle and upper income Americans that can afford to send their kids to college.”

Brilliant. The seeds of compromise have been sown, and in spite of a brand new, fired up, hostile Republican congress, this thing might have a chance.

According to the New York Times, the average 30 year old American born in 1880 had less than 8 years of education. Those born in 1910, increased that to almost 10 years of education. For those born in 1940, when they were thirty the average education had increased to 12 years. If you were born in 1970, the average education of American adults when you were 30 had increased to 14 years. That is where it remains today.

America’s economic power and standard of living has improved with the rising levels of education of its people. That is the basis of the economic argument for the President’s proposal. Who can argue that the jobs of the 21^st century will not require a higher level of education than the jobs of the 20^th, 19^th, or 18^th centuries?

For those complaining about federalizing higher education, how is this different from the GI Bill, that helped to fund my education, or the Pell Grants and other federally insured financial assistance programs that have assisted millions of Americans past and present to finance their college education? As for the “another entitlement program” and “spending money we don’t have” rants, the federal government currently spends almost $68 billion dollars a year on financial aid for education, and states spend billions more each year on scholarships. How hard would it be to find $10 billion of that each year for an investment that would benefit everybody?

For those complaining that the program should be for “those that need it most”, try to remember that “separate schools are inherently unequal”. The worst thing that could happen to community colleges would be for them to become economically segregated. “Free” community colleges would and should attract the middle class and the wealthy. They should attract the full racial spectrum of American students. If they do they will not only be academically viable but equitably funded by the local governments that control that funding.

The high school that I was Principal of in Prince George’s County, Maryland was unique in many ways. Almost 75% of our students were eligible for free and reduced meals, but we were also approved as an International Baccalaureate school, had a robust advanced placement program, and received national recognition for sending a large percentage of our students to college. But in addition to all of that, our school had a technical academy that trained our students and allowed them to graduate with professional licenses in the following skills; Cosmetology, Cisco Networking, Culinary Arts, Barbering, Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning, Electrical Wiring, Masonry, Printing, Automobile Technology, Drafting, Nursing Assistants, and Electronics.

We were able to give our students an opportunity to succeed. Not a guarantee, but an opportunity to succeed at a variety of educational and career options that might be best for them. Most of America’s high schools fail to do that.

President Obama understands that high school is not enough, not for our students, not for our nation. I suspect that the politicians in Washington, the democrats and the republicans, the liberals and the conservatives, know it too.

Ossie Davis, with a little help from Spike Lee, would say “Do the right thing…. Just do the right thing”