Officials support president's community college plan

Local higher education officials, while noting the need for more details, said in principle they support President Barack Obama’s proposal to make publicly funded community college available to all Americans.

The sweeping program, which White House spokesman Eric Schultz said would cost the federal government $60 billion over 10 years, would apply to students who attend at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 grade-point average and progress toward a degree or certificate program.

When told of those program details, Clovis Community College President Becky Rowley said the plan sounded like a version of New Mexico’s lottery scholarship tailored for community college students. The current lottery scholarship is set up for New Mexico residents who immediately enroll fulltime — 12 credit hours at a two-year community college, 15 at a four-year college — but does not kick in until a student’s second semester.

“I think the recognition is,” Rowley said, “there are a lot of people who want to get the two-year degree and they’ll have a better and more lucrative career in a (specific) program.”

The White House said the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the cost and the final quarter would come from states that opt into the program. Schultz said Obama will announce new programs to fully fund the federal portion of the program in his budget next month.

Rowley said she would likely encourage Gov. Susana Martinez to opt into the program.

“I would have to look at the numbers first,” Rowley said, “but I can’t imagine why we wouldn’t.”

The program could be a boon to the college’s nursing program, which opened its new allied health building on the east end of the campus less than three years ago.

“I guarantee nursing will be one of those fields (included in the program),” Rowley said. “If they restrict it to fields in demand, it would be the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields, which in most cases includes health care.”

The White House estimated that 9 million students could eventually participate and save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year if they attend full-time. Administration policy advisors pointed to Tennessee Promise. Signed into law last year by Gov. Bill Haslam, the program provides free community and technical college tuition for two years. It has so far drawn 58,000 applicants, equivalent to almost 90 percent of the state’s high school seniors.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former education secretary, said the key to the program’s success is federal investment. He would like the federal government to reduce paperwork for applying students and increase funding for Pell grants.

“The reason Tennessee can afford Tennessee Promise is that 56 percent of our state’s community college students already have a federal Pell grant, which averages $3,300, to help pay for the average $3,800-per-year tuition. The state pays the difference — $500 on average,” Alexander said in a written statement.

Steven Gamble, president at Eastern New Mexico University, was generally supportive as well.

“It doesn’t spell out yet if this would cover a two-year education at four-year schools or just strictly community colleges,” Gamble said. “There is a lot of detail that needs to be supplied to this. I will say anything that can help us have a more educated populace, it’s hard not to be in favor of it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.