Free Republic

More than 10,000 students are expected to benefit from a last-minute bill passed by legislators this week that makes Oregon only the second state (after Tennessee) to offer free community college. The idea, according to state Sen. Mark Hass (D-Beaverton), is that a lot of needy students who might like to attend community college are currently failing to apply for federal grants that could pay for much of their education. The new legislation, Senate Bill 81, offers a carrot: If eligible students apply for and receive federal grants for community college, Oregon will pay the balance of their tuition. The...

A North Carolina community college is on lockdown Monday after a shooting on campus, authorities say. The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office told WRAL that there had been a shooting at Wayne County Community College. But details of the shooting were not immediately available. “This is not a drill. The entire campus is under lockdown,” read a message posted on the school’s website.

President Obama recently announced his goal to provide two years of “free” community college for American workers. This has been met with cheers from community college leaders, high school administrators, and plenty of Americans. Such cheers, however, are not such a clear sign that President Obama would have us believe in the wisdom of providing free community college education. First, let’s not pretend that this is going to result in saving the country money on education — it merely changes who foots the bill. Instead of people attending community colleges paying for their own education, the American taxpayer will be...

President Obama wants to make community college free to all. But we already have way too many unqualified people going to community colleges. Did you know that the number of students who successfully graduate from publicly-funded community college is only 20%? And that figure is for students who take up to 3 years… to complete a 2 year program! Put another way, 80% of students who go into community college don’t graduate in a reasonable period of time. And community colleges are heavily subsidized by the taxpayer. Why should we subsidize schools where 4 out of 5 students drop out?...

While the Obama Administration hatched a plan to make community college free, the White House plotted a change in the tax treatment of savings accounts parents use to pay for their children’s college education. “During his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed taxing 529 college savings plans,” Alexander Hendrie of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) writes. “529 tax plans work by allowing families to deposit after tax funds into an account that then accumulates interest.” “When funds are withdrawn from the account to pay for college they are tax free.” These Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) allow parents to...

Like walking in a neighborhood full of pickpockets and purse snatchers, living under the Obama administration should leave all Americans worried about what will be pilfered from them next.In one of the most hypocritical moves yet—and that’s saying something—by a man who exhaled a lot of hot air in recent weeks, including during the State of the Union speech, talking about the importance of a college education, President Obama is now proposing to end tax-free withdrawals from 529 college savings accounts, diminishing (or perhaps even eliminating)their attractiveness as savings vehicles and thereby reducing incentives for millions of American families to...

The president’s plan to make community college free for everyone is the best news for the middle class in a long time. President Obama this month gave the best State of the Union address of his presidency but it was largely written in disappearing ink. Like the vast majority of presidential speeches, little of it lingers. But one proposal in the speech could prove historic. While Obama’s $60 billion plan for two free years of community college is dead-on-arrival in the Republican Congress, it is very much alive in American politics, where progressives now have an aspirational, easy-to-understand issue to...

Democrats have long called for grammar school to be “free” (that is, taxpayer-funded)… and they’ve long called for high school to be “free” (yes, even more taxpayer-funded)… and now the Democrats are calling for college – or at least the first two years of it – to be free as well. The proposal can – and should – be shot down with a single point: The United States is, by any measure of the term, bankrupt. We have gone from 7 trillion dollars in debt to 15 trillion in just six years, more than doubling a national debt that had...

Education in America is arguably one of the most contradictory institutions in existence. Teaching as a vocation is both under and over valued, depending on which level one is considering. Many Americans are quick to protest wage and benefit increases when it comes to teachers in public schools. Primarily because it is a readily seen expense on the local level. However, the same issue causes calls for more Federal or State dollars in schools, ostensibly to improve their performance. Once the issue moves on to collegiate level, there are cries about the high expense of tuition in state and private...

I gather from Obama's "free" community college proposal that his plan for dealing with the Republican Congress over the next two years is to throw out ridiculously expensive ideas no one has ever heard of before, and then denounce Republicans for being naysayers. Community college is already incredibly inexpensive. The only thing that will jack up the price is making it "free." How about a big federal program to provide every American with free toilet paper? Coincidentally, that's about all most college degrees are good for these days. Obama's moronic proposal has presented the GOP with a fantastic opportunity. Since...

The short answer is “yes”. Megan McArdle makes the point : Higher education is becoming the ginseng of the policy world: a sort of all-purpose snake oil for solving any problem you’d care to name, as long as we consume enough of it. Education is a very good thing, but it is not the only good thing. An indiscriminate focus on pushing more people into the system is no cure for society’s ills–and indeed, often functions as a substitute for helping the people who are struggling in the current system. In fact (beside the fact we can’t afford “ObamaCare...

The logic behind the “free” community-college program President Obama announced last week is understandable. A high-school education once put many well-paying jobs within reach of Americans. Today, post-high-school work is increasingly necessary. So President Obama has proposed that two years of community college be free for students in most programs, accompanied by more oversight and accountability from Washington. The problems begin where they did with efforts to improve elementary and secondary education from Washington: Why is a locally provided good the concern of the federal government? And since when was America’s K–12 educational system, let alone the federal government’s attempts...

Two stars from the Seattle Seahawks took time away from the field to cut an ad shilling for Obamacare. The ad, posted Friday, features Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and rhetorically explosive cornerback Richard Sherman touting the benefits of President Obama’s healthcare law and its web portal Healthcare.gov.

It’s one thing for conservative pundits to question the Obama Administration’s latest higher education subsidy. It’s quite another for a writer in The Atlantic to start asking inconvenient questions. “President Obama wants to provide free tuition at community colleges, a proposal that could benefit as many as 9 million students, according to a White House outline of the plan released Thursday,” Fawn Johnson wrote on the Atlantic blog. “But there's one big caveat in the proposal: There isn't plan to fund it, other than to ask Congress for the money.” “Without that crucial piece of the program, which would be...

As someone who has spent over 15 years teaching at community colleges, I cannot think of a worse idea than President Obama’s proposal for the federal government to provide “free” community college tuition nationwide. Here’s why: Nothing in life is “free”: The lesson we should be teaching our students is that nothing of value is free. “Free community college” for students translates into “a tax increase for somebody else.” Who is going to pay for the billions of dollars it will cost to provide “free” tuition at community colleges, which are heavily subsidized by taxpayers already? College should be affordable,...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush appears poised for a presidential run and is currently leading the polls among potential Republican candidates for 2016, but the comments he made in 1994 during his first run for Florida’s highest office may come back to haunt him.The Associated Press reports that Bush described himself then as a “head-banging conservative” and used fiery rhetoric — such as claiming he would do “probably nothing” for African-Americans if he became governor — in his ultimately unsuccessful bid. Bush made that statement in response to a question on what he would for African-Americans if elected to office.“It’s time...

Free community college for all. Conversation-starter? Definitely. Political possibility? Not any time soon. President Obama unveiled the idea in a video posted to Facebook on Thursday night. But administration officials provided no price tag, no legislation, and little evidence of Republican support on Capitol Hill. But the White House says that’s beside the point at this stage. The president hopes “to start a conversation,” Obama domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz told reporters.

The Obama administration announced Thursday that it will propose two years of “free” community college for students maintaining a “C” or better, paid for by taxpayers. The federal government would finance three-quarters of the costs, and the administration says it hopes the remainder would be financed by states.  Just 20 percent of community college first-years complete their program within three years. The White House claims the proposal will save students $3,800 per year in tuition costs. When asked about the cost of the proposal to taxpayers, however, the administration said it did not yet have a price tag, but...

(According to) to Justin Sink of the Hill, Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, declined to put a price tag on the plan during a conference call Thursday evening. Rather Muñoz said details of the plan will be in the president's next budget proposal. However, the president's announcement said that the plan could benefit as many as nine million students who could save an average of $3,800 per year. This would put the total cost at a little more than $34 billion. In a (video) accompanying the announcement, the president said that his plan would be...

WASHINGTON – President Obama on Thursday proposed making community college free "for everybody who is willing to work for it." In a video posted on Facebook, the president previewed his plan, which will be formally announced during a trip to Tennessee Friday. "It's not for kids," Obama said. "We also have to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to constantly train themselves for better jobs, better wages, better benefits." The proposal drew an immediate critical response from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who said, "with no details or information on the cost, this seems more like a talking point...