Plan would allow students to attend first two years for free
By Forest Lassman
President Barack Obama has proposed a plan to make the first two years of community colleges free.
The plan, which Obama announced on Thursday, Jan. 8th, will make the two years “free for everybody willing to work for it.” According to the White House, students would have to keep a GPA above 2.5 and “steady progress toward completing their program” in order to qualify for the program.
When college president Joe Sopcich first heard the news, he was excited.
“The initial reaction is, ‘That’s great that community colleges are being looked at in such a positive way. That community colleges can make such an impact in the nation’s economy, in the local economy, and that the president wants to recognize that and is trying to figure out ways to increase accessibility,” Sopcich said.
“The flip side is that it’s not that easy. And if you’ve done any research … there is all kinds of things that make it a little bit more complicated. It’s not just ‘Here you go, here’s $3,800.’ There’s some things you need to do.”
If the plan does go into action, it would give many students the chance to attend the college, and Michael Ralph, a teacher at Olathe East High School, thinks such an initiative is a good idea.
“I absolutely think [free community college] would help,” Ralph said. “Especially with students I see in my classrooms who can’t afford to go to — especially the four-year colleges — but even paying for the first few years of community college is a significant barrier for some kids who otherwise would be great candidates for higher education.”
Ralph also thinks that the plan will help make the overall economy stronger
“If we publicly pay for the first two years of CC, we will greatly improve the skills of the available workforce, which I think is going to make us more competitive in the international job market in the next 10 years,” he said.
One problem with this prospect is dealing with the increase in students. While it would cause a lot more students to attend, Sopcich thinks the college would be able to handle the increase.
“A couple of years ago, we had a 10 percent spike in enrollment. That’s a lot of students, and to do that, we had to make some accommodations, and that was happening over the country,” Sopcich said. “Some schools actually had classes 24 hours … Everybody figures out a way to accommodate the situation, and it would be the same thing with [free community college].”
While this idea is exciting, the college right now has not started to prepare.
“We’ll see what happens, but it’s pretty exciting, and it’s just good to have people talking about the value of community college,” Sopcich said.