Free education!
Legislators in Oregon passed a last-minute bill this past week that will help students with financial needs receive
free community college tuition.
The idea, according to state Sen. Mark Hass (D-Beaverton), is that a lot of needy students who might like to attend community college are currently failing to apply for federal grants that could pay for much of their education.
The new legislation, Senate Bill 81, offers a carrot: If eligible students apply for and receive federal grants for community college, Oregon will pay the balance of their tuition. The recipients must have lived in Oregon for 12 months, begin their community college course work within six months of finishing high school or the equivalent, take courses that are required for graduation and maintain a 2.5 grade point average. (And it's not entirely free—each student must pay a minimum of $50 per term.)
Oregon will become the second state to offer free community college to its younger citizens. A few months ago Tennessee enacted its
Tennessee Promise program and President Obama created the
College Promise initiative. The reason free education for those who need it works is because the investment is so much cheaper than having a bunch of young people out of work, with no skills and
no prospects.
"A lifetime of food stamps is much more expensive than the annual community college tuition of $3,000," Hass told lawmakers on May 28.
[...]
Hass says a bi-partisan approval for a new program that costs money is a sign of how Oregon's economy has changed. A generation ago, there were jobs in forests and mills that are now gone forever.
"People in timber country supported this bill," Hass says. "It wasn't contentious."
Refreshing.