President Barack Obama’s $60 billion proposal of making two years of community college free for qualified students across America has brought both hope and concern.
Congressman Frank Pallone (D-Monmouth) made a visit to Middlesex County College (MCC) on Jan. 23 to have a conversation with students about their take on the proposal.
“My goal is to keep talking about it,” he said.
The congressman was joined by MCC President Joann La Perla-Morales, Assemblyman Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex), Middlesex County Freeholder Director Ronald Rios, Freeholder Blanquita Valenti and Freeholder Kenneth Armwood.
In his State of the Union address on Jan. 1, Obama focused on making education affordable.
“We’re shaking up our system of higher education to give parents more information and colleges more incentives to offer better value so that no middle-class kid is priced out of a college education,” Obama stated in his address.
He unveiled his new community college proposal on Jan. 8. By the year 2020, an estimated 35 percent of job openings will require at least a bachelor’s degree, and 30 percent will require some college or an associate degree, he said.
“Students should be able to get the knowledge and the skills they need without taking on decades’ worth of student debt,” he said.
The requirements of the outlined plan have students attending community college at least part time, maintaining a 2.5 GPA and making steady progress toward completing their program.
Community colleges will be expected to offer programs that are either an academic program that fully transfer credits to local public four-year colleges and universities, or occupational training programs with high graduation rates that lead to in-demand degrees and certificates. Community colleges must also adopt promising and evidence-based institutional reforms to improve student outcomes.
Federal funding will cover three-quarters of the average cost of community college. Participating states will be expected to contribute the remaining 25 percent necessary to eliminate the tuition for eligible students.
Although community college costs are considerably lower than a four-year college, it is still a burden, La Perla-Morales said. She cited the average cost of going to community college in New Jersey at $4,300 a year, with tuition at MCC as $4,100 a year.
“Many of our students work,” she said.
La Perla-Morales said when MCC was established in 1964, it was not necessary to get a college degree to join the workforce.
In today’s world, she said an associate degree is required to be vital in the job market, making an increase in demand at the community college level.
Pallone said with the nature of the economy, officials cannot ignore the global need for training from community colleges and the need of a degree.
While he supports the president’s endeavor, Pallone said he did not want to see it at the expense of federal Pell Grants, which are need-based grants to low-income undergraduate and certain post-baccalaureate students, and low interest rates on student loans that are already in place.
Pallone said the proposal, which he likened to the New Jersey STARS program, is not fleshed out yet, and it may take a while to become an official program. NJ STARS is a scholarship program for New Jersey residents that cover the cost of tuition at New Jersey’s 19 community colleges.
Armwood said he supports Obama’s proposal, which he sees as an investment into the intellectual capital of the nation.
Pallone noted that countries such as Japan provide school at little or no cost to the students.
Rios said education opens doors for youths, ensuring opportunities for success. He noted that he found education so important that he earned his Bachelor of Arts in occupational safety and health from National Labor College in Silver Springs, Maryland, at the age of 48.
“It’s never too late,” the 62-year-old said.
During the meeting, three students from MCC shared stories on how college has changed their lives.
Barbara Roberts of Perth Amboy said when she was younger, her teachers told her she would not amount to anything. She graduated high school, got married and then became a single mother.
“I started working at the postal service and had three jobs,” she said.
In 2007, Roberts said she was hit by a vehicle and became disabled. At the time, her 10-year-old child at the time came to her, saying she didn’t own anything like her friends did.
“That would make me cry,” Roberts said.
One day, as she was lying in bed, she decided to get up and do something — and called MCC.
She was transferred to the Educational Opportunity Fund office, and that was her start towards becoming a student at MCC.
O’Shane Rennie of Perth Amboy said he was on his own when applying to college. He said since his parents are from Jamaica, they did not have the mindset of the process of going to college. After some trial and error, Rennie came to MCC because it was cost-effective and an ideal location.
“It gave me the opportunity to start over and build a platform of what I wanted to do,” he said.
Karen Alvarez of Sayreville couldn’t contain her emotions when speaking about her journey to MCC.
She said in 2009, she came to a fork in the road on her pathway of life. With four young children, she had to make a decision to either head back to a small apartment in Brooklyn, work as a legal secretary and worry about how her children would be taken care of during the day — or do something else.
“I hoped and prayed for another option,” she said.
Alvarez packed up her kids and moved in with her mom in New Jersey, and enrolled in the nursing program at MCC, from which she will graduate in May.
She said Obama’s proposal is a weight lifted off her shoulders in thinking about her children and the opportunities that they will have.
Kyler Dineen of Old Bridge, a member of the New Jersey Libertarian Party who is in her first year at MCC, said that while she sympathizes with her peers, they have to be conscientious of the $18 million of debt in the United States.
“We need to take out emotion and look at this rationally,” she said, adding that she fears that the program would devalue a college degree.
Pallone said he welcomed Dineen’s comments; however, he said focusing on the debt will prevent looking out for the future of generations to come.