President Obama Proposes Free Tuition for Community College

This week, President Obama announced a plan to make community college tuition free for millions of students.

With the cost of four year universities skyrocketing, more students than ever are turning to community college as an affordable option. President of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Dr. Mary Graham, is thrilled at this announcement and what it could mean for south Mississippi. While there are still many logistics to figure out, Graham tells News 25 she has already seen community college transform the middle class and improve the labor market.

Graham says, “Mississippi could do some things like they’ve already done with filling the labor market gap. I don’t know if you’re familiar with what Governor Bryant has done with the incentive scholarships for nursing because of the nursing shortage, and then incentive scholarships for our teacher education programs at the universities.”

The White House has not yet announced how they plan to pay for the program or what percentage of funding individual states would be responsible for.