Financing Higher Education

President Obama’s America’s College Promise Program

Ellen M Shannon-Ball

Northern Illinois University

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In January 2015 the White House unveiled the America’s College Promise Proposal:

Tuition-Free Community College for Responsible Students. President Obama’s initiative is to

make two years of community college free. The premise of the plan is that American’s need

additional skills and knowledge to compete in the world’s global economy. People need an

education beyond high school and the plan hopes to make community college accessible to all.

This paper will analyze this new program and its impact on higher education.

The Promise Proposal was based on the Tennessee Promise, a statewide program that

provides two years of free college. The Tennessee promise is a program enacted by the state of

Tennessee to mentor and increase the number of college students in their state. The program

provides free community college to all residents regardless of their need. To maintain the

scholarship students must maintain a 2.0 GPA and conduct eight hours of community service per

semester.

The President’s plan objects are “to enhance student responsibility and cut the cost for all

American’s”. To qualify under America’s plan students must attend college half-time, make

progress towards a degree, and maintain a 2.5 GPA. In addition to providing free community

college for two years for eligible students, the America’s College Promise proposal will also seek

to expand technical programs at community colleges across the country.

This plan will provide funding to schools that offer accelerated training and that make

accommodations to students who work. The colleges must also provide work-based learning

opportunities. The colleges will be expected to offer programs that fully transfer to local public

four-year colleges and universities or are occupational training programs with high graduation

rates.
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An additional requirement for Colleges under the plan, in order to receive federal funds,

the school must also adopt evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student success. The

federal funds will cover three-quarters of the average cost of community college. Any State that

chooses to participate will have to contribute the remaining funds in order for the student to

receive the free tuition. An additional fund called the American Technical Training Fund, will

provide funds to programs that have employer partnerships and include work-based learning

opportunities

The fiscal year 2016 budget is designed to take bold steps to make college affordable and

to modernize and improve federal student aid. The President has requested over 1.36 billion in

funds. Over a ten year span the program will have a 60 billion dollar federally funded price tag.

With the federal budget still not passed and stop gap measures continually put in place it could

be years before the plan is a reality.

Unlike the free college plans in Tennessee and Chicago, which are only open to recent

high school graduates, Obama's proposal would also cover tuition for so-called non-traditional

students. This is important because the average age at a community college is 28, not 18. Most of

the non-traditional students are only enrolled part time due to additional obligations. The

demographic of students that attend community college have to grapple with the work-school-

family balance, something that does not affect traditional students. Community college students

also take much longer to earn their degrees because of their complicated situations. There are not

many current options to help fund tuition at community colleges for adults unless it is related to

their current position and their employer picks up the cost. Additionally, many of the program’s

currently being cut due to budget shortages, child care and transportation, will need to be re-

invigorated to support non- traditional students

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America’s Promise to make community college free will definitely make college more

affordable. It might also encourage students to stay longer in the programs. However, just

reducing costs will unlikely produce the numbers of graduates the program promises. If we want

to significantly improve educational outcomes, we need to both make college more affordable so

more students can enroll, and make the reforms needed to ensure community college students

can succeed in their courses, complete their programs, and graduate within a reasonable amount

of time.

A large concern about the program is whether the Promise will attract students who aren't

prepared to succeed. Many current community college students struggle academically and

require expensive remedial help in order to be prepared to start college-level work. Many

students grow frustrated and drop out sending underprivileged individuals back out into the

communities with no skills and little opportunities for good jobs. On the flip side, the generous

entitlements the program would offer could encourage marginal students to stay in school

wasting their time and tax payer money and come out of college the same way as drop outs.

Furthermore, the group of students these programs would like to entice, low and middle

income families, are currently under served due to inadequate resources available to guide them

through the financial aid processes. Many low income students don't apply to college simply

because they lack access to the right information and guidance. Even so, free-tuition plans send a

powerful positive message to lower-income students because of the saying “college is for you”

might bring in more students who otherwise would have passed on higher education. The
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Promise will need to provide funds to create additional faculty positions in both the high school

and secondary institutions in order to mentor and lead students and their families through the

already confusing aid procedures.

The plan calls for new mentorship improvements that should boost the success of

community college students. Community colleges will need to provide close monitoring of

student progress and careful alignment of courses to transfer and job requirements. The college

will also need to provide clearer and more coherent programs of study, and help for students to

make better choices about what to study.

President Obama’s proposal does address the quality of education. The plan includes

requirements that community colleges “adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms

to improve student outcomes.” The concern is his plan does not provide colleges with additional

resources to help them in these efforts and how will the quality be measured? Will Community

colleges become like our current high school system and focus on meeting federal numbers

requirements and statistics or will they focus on the student.

By adopting this plan it is possible that colleges could reduce the amount of money spent

on improving student outcomes by shifting those funds to other areas to ensure compliance with

the new standards. The administrative workload colleges will have will greatly increase to meet

the new federal and state requirements. New positions in finance and guidance/counseling will

need to be added to ensure compliance. Also, with the increase in student populations new

building space and a larger operations budget will be required to meet the student population

needs. These items must be in place prior to enactment of the program. Will the federal

government cover these costs or will it fall back on the institutions? As with most federal
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programs, the government will provide the base funds but it is up to the organization to pick up

the rest of the costs associated with the program.

The burden will again cycle back to the states to fill in shortages in federal funds. With

State budgets still in flux and not balanced how will State leaders find the funds to bridge the

federal funding gaps? Community colleges will again be looking for outside sources to help with

revenues and possibly having to cut programs that are not in line with the Promises’ directives.

America’s College Promises is exciting to many students and families who are burdened

with enormous debt from student loans. The promise of free college for all provides hope for

those families who did not believe they would ever achieve a college education. As encouraging

as the president's "America's College Promise" proposal is to many students and their families,

reality is that many of these students will still have large student’s loans if they continue to four

year universities. Someone will have to pick up the costs for the free community colleges. It will

be the tax payers and the tuition and fee increases at 4 year institutions.

Community colleges are the starting point for opportunity for all Americans, enrolling

almost half of the nation’s undergraduates. They are a jump start for low-income students to rise

out of poverty. They partner with businesses to groom individuals for good paying jobs in the

workforce which will bring prosperity back into the entire community.

There are many positive aspects to the college promise but I have a problem with the

concept you receive “something for nothing”. Maybe because I joined the Army to pay for

school I have a different view. I had a responsibility to join the service after graduation to pay

back my tuition. I have traveled to many different areas and seen government programs of

support. When the government offers something for free there is very little incentive to go above
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the minimum requirement. There is no responsibility or individual buy in and fraud, waste, and

abuse surround the programs. The possibility of continuing on to a 4-year university could be the

incentive for some but others will not be interested, or the costs for universities will outweigh

any motivation to pursue a further degree.

The America’s promise program is either going to completely change the way

American’s think of higher education or it will be an empty promise. Either way, it has brought

the discussion of community colleges and funding into the limelight. The attention has brought

out many different perspectives on the need for college, costs of education, the burden on

taxpayers, and the current inadequacies of students entering community college. In order for the

Promise program to succeed the education system from high school on must be revamped to

fulfill all of the Promise programs objectives.

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REFERENCES

Barr, M. J., & McClellan, G. S. (2011). Budgets and Financial Management in Higher Education.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bers, T.H., Head, R.B., & Palmer, J.C. (2014). Budget and Finance in the American Community
College. New Directions for Community Colleges. 168, winter 2014.

Dowd, Alicia C., TaingShieh, Linda. The Implications of State Fiscal Policies for Community
Colleges. New Direction for Community Colleges, vol. 2014, 2014.

Mullin, C.M., Baime, D.S., & Honeyman, D.S. (2015). Community College Finance: A Guide
for Institutional Leaders. San Franciso: Jossey-Bass.

President Obama’s America’s College Proposal. ( 2015, January 9). Retrieved from
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/09/fact-sheet-white-house-unveilsamerica-
s-college-promise-proposal-tuition Jan

America’s Promise Act. (2015, July 8). Retrieved from

http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Advocacy/Pages/acpa2015.aspx

America’s College Promise: prospects, concerns, and the need for more research by Nicholas
Hillman(2015, Jan 12.) Retrieved from
http://www.wiscape.wisc.edu/wiscape/home/blog/wiscapeblog/2015/01/12/america-s-college-
promise-prospects-concerns-and-the-need-for-more-research