WASHINGTON — New legislation, endorsed by the White House, seeks to make two years of tuition “free for all first-time students” at community, technical and tribal colleges in an effort to create more accessible and affordable higher education.
The America’s College Promise Act of 2015, unveiled Wednesday by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, could benefit an estimated 9 million students if every state participated.
The act follows up on President Barack Obama’s January 2015 proposal for tuition-free community college for “responsible students.” But it faces an uphill battle in the U.S. House and Senate.
Bernard Sadusky, the executive director of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, said the United States is in crisis stage when it comes to the cost of college tuition.
“‘Free’ is a very loose term,” Sadusky said. “The question here is, are we at a crisis proportion where taxpayers need to provide higher education to students?”
In a conference call Wednesday, Baldwin said that every student in America deserves a fair shot at higher education. “We also understand the need for America to out-educate the rest of the world in order to compete globally.”
The bill would cost $90 billion over 10 years, with the federal government providing $3 for every $1 invested by states willing to waive community college tuition and fees for all eligible students.
“It is crucial that this legislation includes provisions to ensure that students are graduating and receiving an education that prepares them for the 21st century job market,” Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., said in a statement.
“But I also believe that this is just a start and that there is more work to be done to expand access to higher education,” Delaney added.
There are 16 community colleges in Maryland, with more than 500,000 in-state attendees each year.
“It’s worth the state of Maryland to take a look at the details and see if we’re able to participate,” Sadusky said.
Tennessee and Illinois have already created scholarship programs to help mitigate the rising costs of community college, while Minnesota and Oregon have proposed similar legislation.
But the Baldwin-Scott bill will have to attract Republican support to have any chance of approval in the current session of Congress.
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