Free college program: Oregon administrators already demanding more funds

Oregon’s free community college initiative won’t start for a few more months, but college presidents have already warned about problems that could prevent its success.

Some want the state to do more by expanding the number of student who qualifies and, with it, greater funding, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Offering free college isn’t a bad idea, the argument goes. Instead, the state needs to devote even more funding to higher education.

“To call it free college is more of a misnomer, because not everyone is eligible for it and not everyone will receive free tuition,” Camille Preus, president of Blue Mountain Community College, told Inside Higher Ed.

That’s a stretch, as the Oregon program offers any student who maintains a 2.5 GPA free tuition. College costs go beyond tuition and includes fees, textbooks, and living costs, but offering every student interested in a degree money for 100 percent of their living costs would be impractical, even by state government financial standards.