Scrape together any random assortment of IU students and ask them about their Office of the Bursar bill, and you will receive a laundry list of complaints. We all know it, our professors all know it and our parents all know it: college is expensive. The only people that seem to be unable to ?understand this are our legislators.
This makes President Barack Obama’s proposal of two-year community college free to anyone willing to work for it one of the most important developments in education ?policy since the GI Bill.
For the first time in decades, a president has actually proposed — rather than wished for — a plan to bring our public education up to date with the rest of the world.
Regardless of whether the proposal passes in Congress or not, pressure has finally been put on our academic institutions and our lawmakers to bring college tuition and the education of our workforce front and center in American politics. But if the proposal is able to gain the bipartisan support it needs to become reality, it could rejuvenate an entire generation of students and help shape the legacy of a ?president.
Some college administrators have responded to the proposal with apprehension, fearing the move could pull students away from their institutions. The Editorial Board would encourage them to reconsider the long-term ?impact of the policy.
First, let’s consider that approval of the President’s plan would be a win for public education as a whole. By expanding access to needed job training, many who previously saw higher education as something reserved only for the affluent will now have opportunity.
This means community colleges will be flooded by students who would have forgone college altogether, allowing public universities a chance to go after students who are now able to afford transferring after their first two years are paid for.
More importantly, though, is that this is not an end goal, but a simply a step in the right direction. The proposal has already drawn criticism on the left for not providing enough education. If Democrats unite behind the proposal and can gather the support of forward-thinking Republicans like Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, this could be the first step to ensuring everyone has access to higher education beyond community colleges — which should ultimately be in the best ?interests of any college administrator.
All successful progress comes ?incrementally. The problem with our politics is not that we don’t have the solutions but that we don’t have politicians willing to risk failure for the sake of those solutions.
We have a president and a handful of lawmakers willing to put aside partisan differences to improve the lives of struggling students. Meanwhile, Speaker of the House John Boehner is already denouncing the plan as ?nothing more than a “talking point.”
For a guy who likes to talk a lot about being on the side of the American people, Boehner is looking a lot more like a guy out of touch with what our side really is. Or perhaps he simply doesn’t view students to be worth his time.
