In his speech to Congress Wednesday night, President Joe Biden announced the American Families Plan—a $1.8 trillion investment in free community college and universal preschool.
Hours earlier, Dr. Martha Kanter, CEO of College Promise, addressed the proposal and the impact of free community college during the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development’s (NISOD) International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence.
“I think tonight is going to be a historic moment for community colleges and the rest of education,” she said in the opening keynote address. “Education starts at birth and goes through life. When you talk to your students, you are talking to generations to come and generations behind them. That’s one of the things that community colleges do, we educate everyone.”
Currently, over 65% of today’s jobs require more than a high school education. Despite this, 41% of young adults have an education beyond high school, according to Kanter.
Affordability and access challenges such as tuition costs have created barriers to college enrollment and completion. From 1988 to 2018, there has been a 200% increase in four-year college tuition. Comparably, over the last 10 years, two-year institutions have increased by 34%, Kanter reported.
To minimize cost barriers, initiatives such as College Promise were developed to provide students with affordable options to higher education. Since its establishment in 2015, it has expanded to 368 programs in 31 states and Washington D.C.
As the idea of free college continues to be discussed, Kanter laid out other legislative priorities to be addressed including reducing or eliminating federal student debt, investing in faculty members and doubling federal Pell grant programs.
