President Barack Obama has proposed a new federal-state partnership grant program that would make two years of community college free.
The president was to formally unveil the proposal, called America’s College Promise, at a community college in Knoxville, Tenn., late last week.
The higher education proposal is modeled, in part, after the Volunteer State’s Tennessee Promise, a program funded by the state lottery that provides tuition to high school graduates for any in-state community college program.
In the first year of the Tennessee program, 57,000 students, representing almost 90 percent of the state’s high school graduating class, applied for the program.
White House officials said that under its proposal some 9 million students would be eligible for the program.
