The High Price of ‘Free’

PJ O’Rourke once said that if you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free. We have the same reaction to President Obama’s bid to make the first two years of community college “free.” When you read the fine print, turns out that “free” adds up to $60 billion over a decade, which the president hopes will be picked up by the federal and state governments.

Now, we’re all for community colleges. They have a valuable role to play in our education system as a lowercost alternative to fouryear colleges that are often more in sync with employers. They also have more flexibility than their counterparts. But making them “free” isn’t the answer.

For one thing, though the president says students would be required to keep a 2.5 grade point average, there’s no evidence that making their tuition free will improve student performance. To the contrary, when students pay with their own money, they are much more likely to demand good value for their hardearned dollars.

More important, after saying three years ago, “We can’t just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition,” why would the president now want to stick the marauding paw of the federal government into one of the few areas of postsecondary education that is already fairly affordable?

The College Board says the average for tuition and fees at community colleges is $3,347, against $9,139 for a fouryear public university and $31,231 for a private one. The best way to keep it low is to keep the feds out. If Tennessee is doing as good a job with its community colleges as the president says, our advice is to leave it alone.