Lessening the debt burden, placing higher education in reach

By Nisa Islam Muhammad -Staff Writer- | Last updated: Jan 21, 2015 - 5:45:41 PM

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - There was a time when a high school education was good enough to get a factory job or an entry level job at a business paying a decent living wage.

Those days are long gone and most agree that today a college education is needed to secure a job that could deliver a level of financial security in the career of their choice. How to pay for that college education has always been the obstacle for far too many.

Recently, President Barack Obama proposed that the government pay for the first two years of community college for students of any age who maintain a C+ grade point average (GPA) in a program he’s calling America’s College Promise.

“What I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who’s willing to work for it,” he explained in a video from the White House, January 9. “It’s something we can accomplish, and it’s something that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world.”

The approximately $60 billion program over 10 years requires Congressional approval and mandates community colleges to strengthen their programs to offer classes that fully transfer credits to local four year colleges, universities or training programs with high graduation rates for in-demand degrees and certificates. If all states participate, an estimated 9 million students could benefit. A full-time community college student could save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year.

hikes November 2014. Photo: MGN Online

“President Obama has taken many strides in increasing investment and opportunity for students of color. According to the Community College Research Center 40 percent of those who attend are people of color out of 7.7 million students who attend community college,” said Professor Brenda Muhammad who teaches communication classes at Northern Virginia Community College.

“My students who represent every member of the human family are eager to learn and meet other students from different parts of the world. They learn to respect each other’s culture and religion and increase their earning potential by as much as $50-$60,000 as firefighters upon completion. … I commend President Obama for opening the doors of opportunity for traditional and non-traditional students.”

In just five years according to the White House, an estimated 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree and 30 percent will require some college or an associate’s degree.

America’s more than 1,100 community colleges offer students affordable tuition, open admission policies, and convenient locations. They are particularly important for students who are older, working, need remedial classes, or can only take classes part-time. For many students, they offer academic programs and an affordable route to a four-year college degree.

The America’s College Promise proposal would pay for 75 percent of tuition with states covering the rest.

“I hope we’ve got the chance to make sure that Congress gets behind these kinds of efforts to make sure that even as we rebound and grow in 2015, that it benefits everybody and not just some,” the president said in the video.

The program also has its critics and the first hurdle will likely be a Republican Congress that is more foe than friend to the Obama administration. This program will possibly be one of his main topics during his State of the Union speech later this month.

The program is modeled after two programs in Tennessee and Chicago. The Tennessee Promise, signed into law last year by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam already has 58,000 applicants, almost 90 percent of the state’s high school seniors. It provides free community and technical college tuition for two years.

“If a state with Republican leadership is doing this and a city with Democratic leadership is doing this, how about we all do it,” President Obama said.

The Chicago Star Scholarship program introduced in October will cover tuition, fees and books at City Colleges of Chicago “pathway programs” for Chicago Public Schools grads with a minimum 3.0 grade-point average.

“Still, making community college tuition free for all students regardless of their income neither focuses resources on the students who need aid the most, nor addresses the bulk of the costs of attending community college since tuition charges comprise only one-fifth of the cost of attendance,” explained the Institute for College Access and Success in a statement.

“Consider California community colleges, which have the lowest tuition in the nation plus waivers for low-income students; application rates for federal aid are notoriously low, part-time enrollment rates are sky high, and too many students still can’t afford to stay in school and graduate.”

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