By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — President Joe Biden is proposing two years of free community college as part of his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan.
"Hutchinson Community College is in favor of anything that lowers the cost of education for students," said HCC President Carter File. "Until I see the details of the plan, it's difficult to give you a fair read on it, but if it helps students complete and it helps students lower their attendance costs, I don't think that anybody can argue with that."
It's not as if federal aid isn't already a huge part of what helps the college to function.
"Because of our cost structure, we have a number of students, probably over half of our students, receive some form of federal financial aid," File said. "Many are already attending, tuition and fees paid, because of the Pell Grant. The Pell Grant will cover our tuition, fees and in many cases, books, anyway."
File knows that the devil is in the details, but an expansion of current federal programs would probably be the way that would be the most seamless with what they currently do.
"The infrastructure is already in place," File said. "We have a federal financial aid office that already assists students in getting federal aid. It would seem that if they expanded eligibility under another program, such as the Pell Grant or a loan with some kind of loan forgiveness on the back end, it makes sense that that would make it more flexible, rather than writing something from scratch."
What a final version of the plan will look like by the time it makes it to the President's desk, if it gets that far, remains to be seen.