Some Republicans and experts on left and right say plan for free community college needs coupling with reforms

Critics are pushing back against President Biden's $256 billion plan for free community college, questioning whether it will increase access to higher education and asking where the funding will come from. "His proposal—unveiled in April as part of his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan—would waive tuition for two years of public community college," Josh Mitchell reports for The Wall Street Journal. "It would also provide many students more cash to cover living expenses that often deter students from lower-income families from attending."

The Biden administration says increasing funding for community college "will lead to more Americans enrolling, gaining skills and landing well-paying jobs, in turn boosting incomes and the U.S.’s economic competitiveness. By shifting education costs to taxpayers, supporters say, the plan would ease reliance on student debt, which has soared in recent years," Mitchell reports. "Republicans and some academics on both the left and right say that community college is already inexpensive and making it free wouldn’t sufficiently address deep-seated problems with the system: high dropout rates and entering students being unprepared for college-level work."

The U.S. spent $632 billion on colleges and universities in the 2018-19 school year, more than any other developed nation per student and in total. But high dropout rates among community-college students have more to do with being unable to handle the courses, not a lack of money, said Sandy Baum, a senior fellow at left-leaning think tank the Urban Institute. 

Community-college enrollment in rural areas has plummeted since the pandemic began because of financial barriers and because of difficulties with non-course-related issues such as lack of childcare, according to a recently published study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.