Community colleges should and can be tuition-free

In the past several decades, the rising cost of college tuition has dramatically outpaced wage growth. This has left families scrambling to find the means to educate their children and states losing competitive ground in the global economy. One solution enjoys widespread, bipartisan support from 77 percent of Americans independently polled: tuition-free college.

The proposed Free2Start/Free2Finish program lets Connecticut’s income eligible students go tuition-free to community college for the first two years and a state university for the last two. Nearly 65 percent of Connecticut families would qualify, removing the financial barrier so motivated students can earn a college degree and greatly increase their lifetime earning potential and their options for supporting their family.

Connecticut historically has spent much less than the national average on per student financial aid but will need a skilled workforce to continue to support its largely knowledge-based economy. Seventy percent of Connecticut’s jobs will require at least an associate degree by 2020, while today only about 50 percent of adults aged 25 to 64 meet that criterion , according to the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. The unemployment rate in Connecticut is below 4.5 percent already and the state risks having a homegrown workforce that lacks the education necessary to attract and retain new-economy industries.

Neighboring states including New York and Rhode Island recognize the competitive edge provided by welltrained residents and have launched tuition-free programs.

Throughout the country, momentum is building for tuition-free college as it becomes clear that education is the key to prosperity. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows Americans with college degrees accounted for all the net new jobs created in the economic recovery (11.5 million out of 11.6 million ), leaving uneducated workers with few prospects.

Tennessee is one example of a state that has seen strong adoption of its program, Tennessee Promise. In the first year, enrollment increased by 24.7 percent in their community colleges and 20 percent in their colleges of applied technology. Overall, there was a 10.1 percent increase in the number of students in the state’s institutions of higher education and the statewide rate of college enrollment by high school graduates increased from 57.9 to 62.5 percent.

Making college tuition-free in Connecticut is well worth the state’s investment and can be designed so that the federal government will help pay for it through a new influx of federal dollars to offset the cost of educating each new student, just as it was in Tennessee.

Lack of financial resources should not keep deserving students from getting a college education and a chance at gainful employment.