President Obama proposes two free years of community college for students

[Lambsbread]

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/barack-obama-free-community-college-114094.html

Obama 2016, Obama forever.

[justfollowingtheelections]

Excellent idea, not gonna happen unfortunately.

[IceSpear]

Excellent idea, not gonna happen unfortunately.

[Marnetmar]

Comnist

[Joe Republic]

That's a nice, well-timed policy proposal to coincide with the GOP taking control of Congress.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Apparently this originated under Bill Haslam's Tennessee Promise program.


Once again, Obama takes a good Republican idea and proposes to expand it, now we just have to wait for the second part of the act where Republicans come out against it in full-force for the story to be complete.

[Indy Texas]

Considering a two-year college degree is basically equivalent to the high school diploma of 50+ years ago -- both in terms of education gained and in terms of job prospects -- I'd say it's perfectly reasonable to make community college free and universal up to the Associate's Degree level.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

California's had the equivalent for a long time now. Nice to see most of the country catching up.

[King]

This is an absolutely necessity for job creation. We need people be able to shift careers in changing markets.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Community colleges aren't for-profit businesses and are usually heavily subsidized to begin with. After finishing my degree, I went to my local community college to get a certification, and I was shocked by the low price tag compared to University.

Right now, the only people priced out are the very poor, who might need the certification the most. Bill Haslam had a good idea and I support it. Sadly, he'll never get credit for it now.

[pbrower2a]

Cheap labor is no longer enough to attract employers to a depressed community. Were such so, then we would see lots of employers setting up operations in southeastern Kentucky. We already have plenty of people fully qualified to be domestic servants, restaurant and store clerks, and farm laborers -- which means "no qualifications at all". Few people make careers out of such jobs; they are typically stopgaps for those who have the raw talent to do something else iif they get some training.    

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

If Obama had a Democratic Congress he'd absolutely be in the top 10, if he's not already.

[Cobbler]

Post-midterm Obama is definitely a big improvement over pre-midterm Obama.

[Mehmentum]

A very good idea, and one proposed initially by a Republican to boot.  I doubt Congress will pass it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Excellent idea, not gonna happen unfortunately.

[Hifly]

Excellent idea, not gonna happen unfortunately.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Has Haslam commented? Perhaps Obama can rope him into lobbying for it.

[Flake]

Obama is the best.

I also didn't expect Haslam to propose something like this.... Pretty progressive.

[Mr. Illini]

There may be some unintended consequences, but overall a fantastic proposal. Glad we reelected him, not glad that we stayed home this year so that we have to duke this out with the GOP congress.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Bad timing.  He should have done it prior to these mid-terms.

[Sbane]

Obama is the best.

I also didn't expect Haslam to propose something like this.... Pretty progressive.

Haslam is actually a pretty good governor. A very pragmatic guy.

[Sbane]

Bad timing.  He should have done it prior to these mid-terms.

LOL. We have said this exact thing how many times now? Either Obama did this on purpose to get a fully republican controlled congress, or congressional democrats are retards if they didn't let Obama go forward on everything he has done since the midterms.

[Joe Republic]

Bad timing.  He should have done it prior to these mid-terms.

The 2010 mid-terms, you mean?  Obama has not been permitted any legislative accomplishments since then.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Won't happen.  The GOP has no interest in helping working people obtain better employment.

[Attorney General, Senator-Elect, & Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Excellent idea, not gonna happen unfortunately.

Not like we could pay for it anyways unless we want a huge tax increase or a large increase in the u.s. deficit.