PANAMA CITY — The president of Gulf Coast State College likes President Barack Obama’s proposal to make the first two years of community college free, but presidents of two other area community colleges were a bit more wary.
GCSC President John Holdnak said the free college announcement comes from an administration that’s had good ideas about higher education over the years, adding Obama has been supportive of community colleges as a stimulus for the economy.
He hopes Congress can get behind the plan for free tuition. If they don’t, Holdnak said, the idea may go into the category of great ideas that were never funded, and he doesn’t think tuition reform should be a partisan issue.
"It's not a partisan issue,” he said. “It is a bipartisan issue."
Most new jobs in the future will require some level of education after high school, he added. Holdnak feels the tuition change would be good for students, but he said it’s too early to predict the plan’s chances of approval.
While he said it’s too early to worry about details of implementation, he said colleagues he has talked to at other colleges were concerned about the details, including cost to the states. Obama’s proposal requires states to put up 25 percent of the cost, with the federal government covering 75 percent. Other critics have pointed to the proposal’s source of funding, such as taxing certain college saving plans.
The presidents of two other area community colleges, Chipola College in Marianna and Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, both mentioned their concerns about the cost the state might incur.
“I am in favor of any initiative that provides more students with access to college and technical education,” Chipola President Jason Hurst said. “But I am concerned about where we would find state dollars to support this new program.”
Hurst said the 28 community colleges in the state college system were “already operating very efficiently to make higher education affordable to everyone,” adding about 60 percent of Chipola’s 1,200 students receive some type of financial aid from various sources.
At Northwest Florida, which has a campus in South Walton County, President Ty Handy said the plan is a “real tough pill to swallow for the state Legislature.”
However, Handy did say the overall message was positive, adding he was pleased the president recognized the value of local education.
How students would react to free tuition is a concern, Handy said, adding students may not appreciate a college education as much if it were free.
Overall, Handy said he is not overly optimistic about the plan’s approval, giving it “less than a 50-50 chance.”