Maybe the price of a community college without tuition is too high

Few educational problems, at least the kind of nerd on which I write, cause people's anger. Angry protesters rarely carry demanding banners, "More Research Materials in High School!" Or "Down with Credit Recovery!"

But a school problem – free tuition – has had great political success this year. John Mullane, Community College Advisor, wants this to stop. He spent a lot of his time explaining why free classes would be bad for his students.

How can it be? Many community college students do not have a lot of money. Why not fight for easier education by making sure they do not have to pay this bill?

"Offering free tuition at public colleges and universities is far superior to the typical array of student aid and loan programs bundled by many students," says non-partisan non-profit campaign for free tuition fees . Some polls show more than 80% support for this idea.

Mullane does not have the right to promote his ideas on federal and state spending while working at Gateway Community College in New Haven. Her job is to help students negotiate complex learning pathways to establish a career and a life. What does he know about legislative policy?

He knows community colleges. He spent his personal time and vacation researching and making compelling arguments that eliminating tuition fees would make it more difficult to obtain the certificates and diplomas required by his students.

"States can make colleges as free as they want," he said, "but they do not have a system to help students move on." by these institutions and to graduate on time, they can go directly to a good job or to transfer credits fully to a bachelor's degree, they do more harm than good.

The idea of ​​free courses, he said, "involves spending hundreds of billions of dollars and flooding universities and public colleges." to expand the room into the larger classes so that students can get what they need to graduate, he said.

Mullane testified before the Connecticut legislature in favor of a bill that would have allowed students to transfer all community college credits to the universities of the University of Connecticut and Connecticut. Both major systems opposed this measure. They reported that their transfer systems were working well, despite research showing that only 6% of Connecticut community college students transferred credits to universities.

Sixty-one percent of community college students said at the Center for Community College Student Engagement at the University of Texas in 2016 that they could get the certificates and diplomas they were looking for. Yet, in the space of only six years 39% of community college students obtain a certificate, an associate degree or a bachelor's degree from a four-year college.

Only 15% of students who start at a community college earn a bachelor's degree. Traditionally, colleges have struggled to increase the number of students – which would be the result of free tuition – but have made little contribution to student success, as public funding is generally based on enrollment.

Mullane agrees with what many researchers in the community college system say: States must break down traditions that prevent many students from taking remedial classes and leave transfer paths at four-year-old schools that look like a labyrinth of fields of corn.

Mullane said he advocated "state laws that require students to transfer routes to the statewide". Then they must be applied, he said, which could prove even more difficult. This does not happen with many of these laws right now.

There is good news in some parts of the country. Florida has one of the best transfer systems in the country. But his reforms are complicated and difficult to summarize in one slogan. How can he beat a movement with a banner as simple and compelling as "Free Tuition Now"?