Community College Should Be Abolished

On January 20th 2015, President Obama spoke during the State of the Union Address. In that speech President Obama talked about one surprising thing that got everybody talking. That was his proposal to make the first two years of community college free to anybody willing to work for it. A lot of Americans were for and against this new proposal for many reasons. Some can benefit low class people trying to earn a degree while it can also make it just like high school. Obama’s plan is to make college students debt a little lower than it would originally be. To be eligible for free tuition is, you have to have a GPA of 2.5 or higher, taking classes that make you a half time student, and taking classes that will be transfered to a four year college.

Free community college should not be free to just anybody.
One question with community college being free is how the government plans on paying for this new proposal?

On PBS Newshour, “Obama: Community College Should be Free and Universal in America as High School” states that seventy five percent of the tuition will be taken care of by the federal government and the last twenty five percent will be picked up by the states. The proposal will cost roughly around sixty billion dollars in the next ten years. The article than goes on to explain how free community college will allow more and more people to come to college meaning it will cost more money to provide and education to everyone who wants article one. I agree with this author and the points of view in which he comes from. I don’t see how we will be able to afford everyone with an education. I also think there is different ways that people can pay for college like aids and

scholarships.
If this proposal is introduced how will community college not be an extension of high school. An article found on The Federalist was an article by Georgi Boorman, a fellow community college student, “Free Community College Will Just Make High School Six Years Long.” In this article she talks about how taxpayers would essentially be paying more for two extra years of high school. She goes on to talk about how free community college would lessen the value of a college education. Many students are not ready to even graduate high school let alone attend a community college. You will then have students who don't value there education just like they did in high school, dragging the high school or even failing the course. I agree with what she has presented in this article because I think that some of the classes I take was just a review of high school. Since I am a general education pathway I have take classes that I have already completed in high school.
There are problems that will follow for free community college, so what are those problems?

According to, Forbes article “Three Problems with President Obama's Free Community College Pitch” one issue was that nothing is always free. Even though the government is paying for most of the tuition over the years we might not be able to cover the cost of new people coming to college each year in ten years. Another issue was that Obama claimed that more and more jobs will require an associates degree or higher. This means that High School should already prepare people for those skills. This article presented even more reasons why free community college shouldn't just be free for anyone because it always just comes back to money and how we will pay for

it.
How can free community college also be a good thing? In an article “Why President Obama’s New Community College Plan Matters” shows views of how free tuition is a good thing. One way is that it will expand education past high school and increase competitiveness in our economy. While this may be a good thing that everybody can get an education. I feel that if more and more people get an education than when you are finished college there will be limited job opportunities for everybody. Also in this article it also states that this new proposal will cover as many as nine million college students. I think that this number is going to increase every year because of more and more people graduating and other people wanting to pursue a better degree. Going back to the problem with how the government plans on paying for it.
Lastly, how will colleges be effected by this new proposal? In an article by Eric Kelderman, “Would New Students Be Prepared for Free Community College?” Takes a new take on how schools will not benefit from free tuition. Many students are not ready to start at a college level course meaning schools will need to be an increase in remedial classes. According to, The Community College Research Center, 68% of students are required to take at least one or more remedial classes while 30% will never complete the course and drop out. I know that I needed to take a lot of math and English classes before I could be entered into the college level courses. This also means that remedial classes will have an increase in the number of students due to students who are not ready for college. I feel like they help but if there are too many students in one class I wont have that one on one help with the teacher that I do now.
Community college being free should not be allowed for everyone. There are many ways to pay for tuition rather than it be handed to you. You will have a decrease in the value of education you are receiving and you wont have the same benefits you do now being a community college student. Free community college will increase more problems for education and should not be for everybody.