The push for ‘free community college’ is a smokescreen on student debt | Opinion

There aren’t many institutions in America that I would label as “good.” American institutions that provide net societal positives and aren’t subsumed by grifters or strivers are indeed few and far between. But the community college, writ large, is one of those very few.

I, myself, am a community college product and a proud one. Dutchess Community College is my alma mater, and, as a person who thinks the phrase “it changed my life” is overused, I can safely say it did exactly that. Community college taught me to live with necessity and urgency and prepared me for the challenges of life on my own far more than the school where I got my bachelor’s degree did. But, as a former community college student who identifies proudly with his school, I feel compelled to say: If a politician tries to sell you on “free community college,” it’s part of a wildly cynical bait and switch — an effort to take eyes off the ball of tuition-free public four-year college and ameliorating current student debt.

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Recently, Philadelphia City Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez tweeted in support of a Biden administration push for “free community college” access. This isn’t a new pitch. The Obama administration also pushed for tuition-free community college in 2015. It’s also a bipartisan thing. Republicans in Tennessee and the GOP of Michigan have both quietly approved state-level programs to guarantee tuition-free community college for Tennesseans and Michiganders.

The reason free community college is popular — acceptable to both liberals and arch-conservatives — is that it’s an easy way for politicians to look as though they are solving a problem when they’re actually not.

Community college tuition is paltry compared with the cost of even public schools in Pennsylvania. According to the Community College of Philadelphia, an unassisted 13-credit semester would cost $2,684, not counting fees or books. An equivalent semester at Penn State Brandywine, according to the college system’s tuition calculator, costs $7,243; counting on-campus housing and meals, largely unnecessary for community college students, the price jumps an extra $6,000. Change campuses to the mothership, University Park, and tuition alone jumps to $8,960.

The cost to complete an associate degree at Community College of Philadelphia would be around $12,000, sans rent or meals. The cost to complete two years at a Penn State University campus would be far more than twice that price, not counting necessities like a meal plan or dorm fees or other insidious fees, like internship costs.

What’s more: community colleges often offer significant and regular discounts and scholarships. At my community college, students who graduated high school in the top 10% of their class attended tuition-free. Community College of Philadelphia offers up to 12 free credits to folks who recently lost their jobs as part of its Opportunity Now program, and the Octavius Catto and PROMISE Scholarships cover tuition and incidentals for some CCP students.

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None of this is to say that community college debt doesn’t exist. It does. I’d be glad not to have those extra couple grand on my student loan tab. But from a political standpoint, creating debt-free community college is an extremely useful smokescreen. In a sense, it’s the Affordable Care Act for college debt. A step in the right direction, yes, but as much as anything, an opportunity for politicians to say, “We did something, what else do you want?” and kick the can on the enormous costs of four-year college that drive so much debt.

If community college tuition is made debt-free at the expense of keeping four-year tuition unconscionably unaffordable and continuing to grow, we will be treated to another decade of dismissal and punting on policy. The solution to the student debt crisis can’t be technocratic or incremental. It has to be swift and total. As great as free community college for all would be, it would solve an incalculably small part of the problem. All public college tuition should be free, and all student debt should be forgiven.

Community college debt is student debt. If this problem is to be fixed, it’s all or nothing.

Quinn O’Callaghan is a teacher and writer in Philadelphia. quinnocallaghan91@gmail.com