President seeks to make college affordable
President Barack Obama announced in January a plan “to lower the cost of community college — to zero” in the U.S.
Through federal and state funding, Obama hopes community colleges will cost nothing for students who keep at least a 2.5 GPA, attend part-time and plan to work towards a degree or transfer to a four-year school.
The plan could save an average of $3,800 for a full-time community college student, according to a White House release, and could help 9 million students in the U.S. if utilized.
“It gives more opportunities for people who can’t afford college to get (an) education,” said Huxley Ng, an international student from Hong Kong. “If it’s free for everyone, even international students, I think a lot of foreign students will come to the U.S. to study.”
Ng, a junior majoring in international studies, attended two years at Snow College because the requirements were lower than most for international students. She paid about $5,000 each semester attending Snow College from 2009-2011.
She said one possible result of Obama’s plan could be less people choosing to go to community colleges rather than four-year institutions.
However, professor Michael Lyons of the political science department at Utah State University, said the plan could incentivize more young people who don’t really have a plan for the future to jump into college prematurely.
“I think there’s too much pressure on people to start college at 18,” Lyons said. “It is possible to wait a few years to start college. A lot of 18-year-olds are not ready when they come to college, but many of them, if they came back two or three years later, would excel.”
Lyons said the problem lies in post-graduation opportunities for high school graduates, which are low-paying jobs that hold little chance of future careers.
Many young people choose to go to college because it seems like the best option after graduation, even if they don’t have specific plans for their future, Lyons said, which leads young people to float around at college and not make progress towards a career.
“I would like to see a much larger share of the population encouraged to go out and work in the world, join the military, join the Peace Corps,” he said. “Once you have a more realistic handle on how the world works and who you are, come back to college.”
Lyons said a better option could be mandatory, universal national service for a year or so after high school graduation, in which young people could be out in the world before starting college.
“We certainly need to focus on getting better jobs for high school graduates,” he said. “It’s already happening with Peace Corp and the military. … I guess I’d like to see the non-military options expanded.”
Stephen Lee studied for a semester at a community college in Arizona before serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was about $1,000 for 16 credits, which he said was very affordable.
“I initially went there because I was trying to study while at the same time save money for my mission,” Lee said. “I am very glad that I did that because I saved up quite a bit of money and still got a good education.”
Though he agrees that Obama’s plan could help students, Lee sees FAFSA as a realistic option for those in financial need.
“On another side, I feel like having students save up money for college allows them to see the importance of making college count,” Lee said. “If students really want an education, they need to work for it. I feel like if this plan were to be put in place that there would be a lot more students who would go but not care.”
Lyons agreed that junior college usually isn’t very expensive, and financial aid is available to those in need, which is one reason he doesn’t expect the proposal to get far with in Congress.
“I think the aid should be targeted to those who will really struggle financially if they try and enter college,” he said. “I’d like to see more money given to students who would like to go to college.”
— mandy.m.morgan@aggiemail.usu.edu