"Put simply, what I'd like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who is
willing to work for it," Obama said in
a video message released by the White House Thursday night.Obama plans to discuss the initiative in more detail Friday during a trip to Tennessee, where a relatively similar program has been started at the state level. He is to include the federal initiative as a centerpiece of his State of the Union address January 20.
Administration officials declined to offer a cost estimate, although they said states would have to pay about a quarter of the expense.
They added that 9 million students could benefit annually, and the average tuition savings for a full-time student at a public two-year college would be $3,800 a year. Students would have to meet certain criteria, such as attending school at least half-time and maintaining at least a 2.5 grade point average.
Cecilia Munoz, Obama's domestic policy adviser, said the president wants to "make two years of college the norm – the way high school is the norm."
Majority Republicans in Congress were skeptical. "With no details or information on the cost, this seems more like a talking point than a plan," Cory Fritz, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters.
Republicans say Obama's initiative, which needs congressional approval before it can take effect, would apparently be too expensive, and would unfairly impose a uniform standard on the entire nation rather than let states take the lead in developing their own programs.
It is likely to set up another confrontation between the Democratic president and the Republican majority in Congress.
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