President Barack Obama announced a plan to make two years of community college free. (The White House)
WASHINGTON — Beginning with the social reformers of the early 20th century, advocates for educational attainment have pointed toward a high school degree as a goal for which every child in American society should strive.
Now, new proposals from the White House could raise the bar.
The idea had been to create an educated society that all taxpayers, whether they have children in the public school system or not, would have to support. And largely, the movement has been a success.
Education levels rose throughout the 20th century, helping to play a major role in the United States’ dominance in the world economy.
For a while, it seemed, the United States’ push for higher education was also paying off in the number of students that attained at least a two-year associate’s degree from college.
In 1996, the U.S. was the second-leading nation in the number of people ages 25-34 with at least an associate’s degree. But by 2013, the U.S. had slipped, ranking 14th in the same category, according to a report from The Century Foundation.
President Barack Obama has proposed an idea that would, in theory, buck the trend, reestablishing a universal education framework introduced about a century ago.
On Jan. 8, Obama announced his plan for free community college with a short video on the White House’s Facebook page. The following day in a speech at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Obama spoke about his plan to partner with states to cover the entire cost of community college tuition for students who maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average and attend school at least half time.
“Two years of college will become as free and universal as high school is today,” he said, evoking the spirit of the 20th century education reformers.
Based on free community college tuition plans in Tennessee and Chicago, it appears Obama’s America’s College Promise could eventually establish a K-14 education initiative as the new standard.
“I think this is all for the good. It’s a natural progression,” Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning Century Foundation, said.
Universal higher education, according to Kahlenberg, would do more to strengthen the economy through opening doors to higher education for those who would not have been so inclined in the past.
Those doors, though, may not be the right ones, according to Andrew Kelly, the director of the Center on Higher Education Reform.
Community colleges graduate only 20 percent of their students in three years, according to the Department of Education. Kelly argues that a “public monopoly” on higher education is dangerous as some of the innovative techniques established outside the public sector would be lost.
The choice between tuition-free institutions and private ones, under Obama’s plan, would create an unfair playing field where the benefits of private community colleges would be lost, Kelly said.
With legislation forthcoming, the specific details of Obama’s plan have yet to be released. Regardless, a push toward universal higher education has its fair share of supporters and opponents.
