Community College Should Have Free Tuition!

Tom Hanks totally rocks it in his New York Times Op-Ed, I Owe It All to Community College: Tom Hanks on His Two Years at Chabot College.

I hereby call upon all famous people to follow suit to bring more public attention to how important affordable (free!) community college opportunities are.

As I am prepping for the semester to begin, I always look forward to my classes at Housatonic Community College. The students are most often hard-working, passionate and conscientious.

Obama’s proposed plan to make many two-year community college programs tuition-free would make such a huge difference in students’ lives. 

Just today, I received an email from a former Composition student who is hoping to take my Introduction to Literature course this spring, but had his financial aid cut. He wanted to see if I would over tally him if he is able to somehow scrape the money together at the last minute.

He was one of my star students, so of course my answer was yes. He is a fine example of a student who should have the opportunity. When someone is eager to learn, studious and ready to change their lives, we should do everything we can to help them.

I hope our country is able to put Obama’s plan into action. Let’s make education freely available to those who desire it.

This radical idea could change not only the lives of students, but also improve the entire country’s sense of freedom, fairness and opportunity.