Free Tuition: The Logistics

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Created on Thursday, 26 March 2015 15:09

Written by Alex Farnworth

VERMONT- President Barack Obama has recently pitched the idea of free tuition for community colleges. In Obama's State of the Union Address on January 20, he made it clear that getting a higher education needs to be a priority for the citizens of this country. Later in the address, the President backed his idea with statistics, saying, "forty percent of our [United States] college students choose community colleges."

Money seems to always be the biggest concern when talking about post-secondary education. Community colleges would have little concern if free tuition were to go through and the federal government would cover 75% of the average cost of community college. The individual states will be expected to cover the remaining costs.

Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent-Vermont, is a proponent of free tuition and believes getting a higher education is vital. "Thirty or so years ago, we led the world in the percentage of our people with a college degree. Today we are in twelfth place, so, we are competing against countries around the world to provide free tuition for their young people and we're at a competitive disadvantage by making it difficult for young people to get the education they need. That's issue number one," Sanders said. In addition to that, yesterday, Sanders released a statement questioning the GOP budget and how the budget is "ridiculous," especially when there are people struggling in the country. "Young people are struggling to figure out a way they can afford to go to college. And for those people who graduate college, they are stuck with those oppressive debts around their neck that they carry for decades," he said.

A few weeks ago, Governor Rick Scott, Republican-Florida, spoke out on the current tuition fiasco, "Like any business, we should expect education to be made more affordable every year, not more expensive. Let's never again say that we have to raise tuition because tuition in other states is higher than ours. We don't raise taxes when taxes in other states are higher than ours."

If this proposal were to become a reality, there are some qualifications and requirements for the students. In order to be eligible for free enrollment at a community college, students would have to be enrolled at least half-time, as well as maintain a GPA above 2.5. On the college's part, they would have to offer programs that will allow credits to transfer to a local four-year institution.

Tuition costs and lack of adults with degrees isn't just a national problem. The state of Vermont has extremely high tuition rates for both 2-year schools and 4-year schools. According to the College Board, Vermont students are spending $7,300 per year for a two-year degree, which is the most expensive in the country. California is the least expensive state for community colleges, with the average tuition being $1,429.

The Community College of Vermont (CCV) has several branches throughout the state and allows students to enroll form all over the state without physically being in class. Even though students can sit-in on a lesson via videoconferencing, pupils still find it tough to pay off those student loans and tuition costs.

"Most of the time I spent would be towards my studies and not working," Fritz Pierre, a student at CCV, said.

Joyce Judy, President of CCV, said, "We are always trying to find the balance between the cost of tuition with what it costs to run the institution. We are always trying to find the sweet-spot that it's affordable for students, that we're able to pay our staff, keep our facilities upgraded, keep our facilities open. So, how do you find the perfect match between what people can afford and what it needs to run an institution."

Another CCV student, 26-year-old Cassandra Suliveres, chimed in about the possibility of free tuition, "I come from a poor family background... I went to St. Johnsbury Academy, where if you didn't have money, you weren't nothing. It [would] help a lot for people that can't afford it."

Free tuition, otherwise known as "fruition," for community colleges is just the first steppingstone on the walkway of Obama's project. Instead of just the first two years of community college being free, the President would like to make the first two years at any state college free of tuition. This could help the state of Vermont immensely.

"Because CCV does not receive a lot of funding from the state of Vermont, we rely very heavily on tuition, in fact, we're funded about 85% by tuition. Tuition is relatively speaking very high. Although we're the least expensive college in Vermont, compared to community colleges in other parts of the country, we're quite expensive. So, if there were even some reduction in costs to Vermonters through any initiative with community colleges, it would be enormously welcomed," Eric Sakaii, Dean of Academic Technology at CCV, stated.

"Particularly within the Vermont State Colleges a lot of CCV Students graduate with a two-year degree with us [CCV] and go on to (hyperlink) Lyndon, they go on to Johnson, Castleton or some of Vermont Tech's four-year programs. A lot of 'em may go to UVM [University of Vermont]. So the more students that are able to enroll in and complete a degree at CCV I think it would be safe to say the more that will go on and pursue a four year degree at another institution," said Sakaii.

Jeb Spaulding, Vermont State College Chancellor, loves the concept of free tuition and that it would skyrocket enrollment, but doesn't think everyone should be allowed to take advantage of the plan. "Making sure that we [Vermont schools] had the capacity to accommodate a lot of new students because I think there would be a real stampede towards taking advantage at the opportunity," Spaulding said, "I think for that program to move forward, there will need to be a lot of details answered. I mean, I can see how people might say maybe it should be free on a slide-scale basis, but should everyone be allowed to go for free, no matter what their income level is, no matter how high their income is? Some people would say, yes, just like they have a right to do 12 years of public education, we're really saying people are entitled to go to 14 years. Others would say with the limited means we have right now we've got to focus our resources on the people that need help the most."

Looking at statewide statistics, it seems as if Vermont needs a great deal of help. When dealing with 4-year schools, Vermont is second in the nation for highest tuition at a $14,419 rate. New Hampshire ranks first for most expensive schools, with in-state students paying $14,712, the average across the states comes out to less than half of that at $7,057.

It seems that community colleges are "all for" the free tuition push, but state schools are quite skeptical. "If it [free state college tuition for 2-years] were to happen, it would cause some dislocation as well as opportunities because as you can imagine there might be a lot of people that were going to go to a four-year college and then say I might want to go to a 2-year college for free, and that is certainly going to screw up the business model for a lot of four-year colleges out there so there are some details that would need to be worked out," Spaulding adds.

Over at Lyndon State College, Interim Dean of Academics Nolan Atkins believes state schools would have carefully look at their admissions process and enrollment plans, "More students will have access to higher education, so Lyndon needs to think carefully and strategically about how we'll handle an address, those initiatives should it come to fruition."

When talking about free tuition at the community college level, Dr. Atkins thinks it could help bring up the tuition for state schools, "It might bring students who might not otherwise go to college, bring them into CCV and they may, in turn, decide they want to pursue a four-year degree and then come to Lyndon.

Whether it be free tuition for two-year schools or free tuition for state schools, institutions are always looking for ways to cut costs and bring in students. If Obama's plan is made a reality, college enrollment would shoot up instantly, but how likely is it?

"It raises the level of conversation of how important for everyone to know that they need to continue their education beyond highschool," President Joyce Judy says, however, "Do I think in the short term there will be free community college tuition, no, because you look at it. It's a Democratic proposal and we have a Republican legislature, but, it's got everybody talking about how important it is to continue your education."