Let’s have the debate. 

President Obama’s proposal to offer free community college to students with at least a 2.5 grade-point average has its skeptics – congressional leaders seem quite cool to the president’s proposal to raise taxes to pay for the $60 billion program over 10 years.[1]  It’s also not clear where legislators in North Carolina would get more than $90 million a year to pay the state’s 25 percent share should the proposal get through Congress.

But if nothing else, the President’s proposal in his State of the Union address opened a debate over access to higher education in America – and that’s a debate the country and North Carolina need to have.

The proposal acknowledges a rude fact in today’s global economy:  A high school diploma no longer guarantees a decent job.  The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce projects that by 2018 – just three years from now – 63 percent of U.S. jobs will require some form of post-secondary education.[2]

Under the President’s proposal, students would have to enroll either in programs with guaranteed transfer credits to a four-year institution or in occupational programs in high-demand fields.[3]

The proposal’s prospects in Congress and the N.C. General Assembly don’t appear good.  U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of Winston-Salem said he would prefer to use the billions Obama’s new program would cost to shore up existing Pell Grants for the neediest students.

“Pell Grants provide students with maximum choice in post-secondary options from allsectors of higher education, including community colleges,” Burr said. “This new proposal from the Obama Administration favors one sector of higher education over others when, as we all know, there are so many other options available that might best suit a student’s needs.”[4]

North Carolina takes pride in a strong tradition of access to its community colleges and public universities.

“The President’s proposal appears consistent with our state’s longstanding commitment to affordable higher education,” said Scott Ralls, the president of the N.C. Community College System.  “North Carolina’s community colleges are national leaders in promoting student access, affordable tuition and establishing clear higher education and career pathways – all key tenets of the President’s proposal.”

Ralls said policymakers need to take more than tuition into account, though – they also need to provide quality instructors, labs and classrooms to make sure students graduate with meaningful credentials and move into the workplace. [5]

There is a growing sense that North Carolina’s great higher education deal is at risk, raising questions about how much elected officials value access to higher education.  Average tuition at our state’s public universities has risen 86 percent in 10 years as the state reduced support, for example[6], and state universities are seeking to increase tuition again this year.[7]

Increasingly, students choose to complete the first two years of a four-year degree at a community college – community-college graduates account for more than half the students who transfer to North Carolina’s public universities.

Tuition amounts to about $370 million across North Carolina’s 58 community colleges.  Obama’s proposal would require states to provide 25 percent of the cost, or roughly $92.5 million in North Carolina.  If the price of college is lowered to zero, enrollment could well climb, further increasing costs.

Given tax cuts they approved in 2013 that reduced state revenue by at least $2.4 billion over five years,[8] though, state legislators don’t appear inclined to spend more to provide college access as they open their 2015 session.

“We do need to look at the community college system and the formula for funding,” Rep. Donny Lambeth, R-Forsyth, told the Winston-Salem Journal.  “I do agree that we need to get people retrained and re-skilled. My concern is that there is precious little new money in North Carolina until we get our arms around some of the out-of-control costs like Medicaid. Right now things are tight and the ability to create funds for new purposes is pretty restricted.”[9]

That won’t silence employers’ demands for an educated workforce, though.

So yes, let’s have that debate.