BLOG: Free Public College Could Become a Reality
- James Baratta
- Oct 1, 2021
- 2 min read
Tuition-free community college—and a series of federal-level higher education investments—may now be closer than ever before.
President Biden narrowly avoided a partial federal shutdown today after signing legislation that will keep the government funded through early December. On Thursday, both the House and the Senate passed the extension by a 254-175 and 65-35 vote, respectively.
The Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act might be“too-big-to-fail,” as the 10-year plan consists of measures that would dramatically expand the nation’s social safety net.
The $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill that lawmakers have been trying to push through Congress includes key provisions of the Act. With progressive and moderate Democrats locked in a stalemate on Capitol Hill, though, it remains unclear how soon they will actualize the Biden administration’s sweeping agenda.
What’s in the bill?
According to the Associated Press (AP), the bill seeks to “address climate change, lower education costs and promote access to child care.”
The budget reconciliation bill also includes “funding for minority-serving institutions and an increase to the Pell Grant,” Inside Higher Ed reported.
America’s College Promise, the program that would make tuition-free community college a reality, could offer more mobility to low-income students because states would be able to distribute leftover funds toward need-based aid at public colleges with four-year degree programs for a period of five years.
Is tuition-free community college free? Sort of.
An estimated 65 percent of all job openings require “postsecondary education and training beyond high school,” a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce stated.
What does this mean for higher education in the United States?
Put simply, structural changes are needed to make higher learning more accessible.
In order to improve the accessibility of higher education institutions nationwide, “some states will need to increase funding… by more than 40 percent,” Inside Higher Ed reported. Funding from five-year federal-state partnership under America’s College Promise—which starts at 100 percent—would gradually decrease by 5 percent (annually) for five years, “leaving states to fund the rest.”
“States also cannot use any of the federal dollars to administer the money, meaning that any additional expenses incurred from managing the free tuition program will also come out of the state budget,” Sophia Laderman, senior policy analyst at the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), told Inside Higher Ed.
Without a federal definition of public college, it might be difficult to determine which higher education institutions are eligible for federal funding.
Despite this, support for free public college at the state and federal levels may lead to a more prosperous workforce.
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