Friday, January 23, 2015

High School = Community College (?)

        As 31.7 million viewers tuned in to President Obama's state of the Union address, one of the biggest subjects was the topic of community college. The President wants to lower the cost of community college because not only is it necessary for students who are "Priced out" of a four year university straight out of four years of free public high school; it is also necessary for the single parents and veterans who are getting back into the job market.
        The reduced cost of community college wouldn't be your average bargain discount-but a 100% one. That's right, two years of community college for American citizens. "You'll have to earn it. You'll have to keep your grades up and graduate on time" said Obama. Another point that was made that Tennessee (a republican lead state) and Chicago (a democratic lead city) have already implemented the free-community college system. Obama believes that this is a system which could and should be spread nationwide in order to benefit all citizens who want to get a better job and further their education.

        Under this new system, congress would pay seventy-five percent of the student’s tuition and the state would pay the remaining twenty-five percent. Along with this new system comes a few questions. The first being, how dramatically would this reduce the amount of students going to a four-year university straight out of school? Would this increase the demand for community colleges since more students would take the route of going to community college for two years then transferring to a four year University? More and more jobs are requiring a post-secondary education in some form, and this system would provide citizens with more opportunities to pursue the careers and lives they truly want to. When you think of that scenario, doesn't the word freedom come to mind?

Sources: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/community-college-tuition-top-theme-state-union-speech/
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-many-people-tuned-in-to-the-state-of-the-union-speech/

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