Obama Announcing Plan to Make Community College Free

President Barack Obama will propose a plan to make community college free for students.

"What I’d like to do is see the first two years of community college free for everybody who is willing to work for it,” Obama said in a White House video posted online Thursday. "That's right, for free for everybody who's willing to work for it. It's something we can accomplish and it's something that'll train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world."

AP

Obama will lay out his full vision in a speech in Tennessee Friday.

The White House says the plan could save a full-time community college student about $3,800 a year and benefit about 9 million students annually. Under the proposal, students would have to keep a 2.5 grade point average and make progress toward getting a college diploma. Community colleges would have to offer programs that transfer to four-year colleges and universities.

The White House says federal funding would cover three-fourths of the average cost of community college; participating states would pick up the remaining quarter.