With college tuition and the need for a college degree both soaring, President Obama announced a free community college tuition plan Jan. 9.
The plan, open to all prospective post-secondary education students, requires applicants to attend school at least half-time and maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.5.
Eligible students who follow these prerequisites could receive up to two years of community college for free, with credits transferable to any other college or university.
Estimated at $60 billion across 10 years, the plan calls for the federal government to pay for three-fourths of tuition and the state to cover the remaining quarter.
With 16 community colleges throughout the state of Wisconsin, Obama’s tuition plan would be “enormously beneficial” to UW-Madison, Associated Students of Madison Vice Chair Derek Field said.
“It offers a lot of opportunity for UW-Madison students, but more so for students at other schools,” Field said. “This proposal is essentially geared more towards bringing students into the education system who wouldn’t otherwise do so.”
Professor of Educational Policy Studies and Sociology Sara Goldrick-Rab said UW-Madison is in a place of leadership and should reiterate community colleges play by accepting a greater percentage of transfer students.
“Community college is largely not affordable. People say that it is, especially for students getting financial aid,” Goldrick-Rab said. “Students getting financial aid pay an average out-of-pocket cost of over $8,000 per year.”
Goldrick-Rab started the Wisconsin HOPE Lab in 2013, the nation’s first “laboratory for translational research aimed at improving equitable outcomes in postsecondary education,” according to the lab’s website. In February 2014, she exchanged ideas surrounding college affordability with various politicians and White House education advisors, according to a UW-Madison release.
The HOPE Lab develops proposals in response to data, such as the mounting price of out-of-state tuition.
The average student loan for undergraduate students at UW-Madison increased from $26,625 to $27,711 in 2014, but still falls below the national average of $28,400, according to a Jan. 13 UW-Madison press release.
Susan Fischer, director of the UW-Madison Office of Student Financial Aid, said minimal changes in the state and federal Pell Grants are at fault for the increase in student loans. Pell Grants are unique as they do not need to be repaid.
Fischer added that economic difficulties force families to apply for more loans than expected, although tuition at UW-Madison has remained stagnant the past two years.
Field said that, with the plan’s theme of state funding and access to higher education, the UW System “by definition, would have to support it.”
He added ASM plans to advocate for Obama’s free community college tuition plan via written response in the near future, as it could potentially allow more students to attend UW-Madison.
