By Ashley Gilmore
WASHINGTON— The centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s $70.7 billion education budget for 2016 – free community college education – would “make college as free and universal as high school was 100 years ago,” Education Secretary Arne Dunn said Monday.
The budget proposal includes a plan to invest $60.3 billion over 10 years for federal-state partnerships that would cut costs and increase job opportunities for college-age Americans, Duncan said. The Education Department suggests that by the year 2020 35 percent of jobs will require a bachelor’s degree and 30 percent will require some college or an associate’s degree.
Students who would participate in this program would have to maintain a 2.5 grade point average while in college; they also would have to either complete an associate’s degree or move on to a four-year university to complete a bachelor’s degree.
The Education Department would pay three-fourths of the cost of community college tuitions, while states would have to cover the rest.
Community colleges would have to offer programs transferable to local public four-year colleges and universities and training programs that lead to high graduation rates in associate degree programs; they also would have to develop institutional reforms that improve student outcomes.
According to a 2010 report by ACT, some of these stipulations are far off for some community colleges. ACT found that only 36 percent of community colleges had course programs that were applicable to statewide institutions. They also found the mean retention rate from first to second year was 56 percent, with only a 27 percent degree completion rate.
But David Baime of the American Association of Community Colleges said the schools could meet the requirements proposed by Obama. “With a significant amount of resources it can be done,” he said.
