( CNN ) In his State of the Union address , President Obama proposed making community college tuition free for two years to boost college graduation rates and lift more people into the middle class . Unfortunately , his plan does n't make the grade . The proposal would not only pile up more debt by further subsidizing runaway college costs , it would also perilously undercut the emergence of more innovative educational programs designed to help students succeed in the workforce . Offering only a lukewarm pathway to the job market , community colleges are incapable of fulfilling the President 's lofty ambitions . Although there are some high-performing community colleges and stellar stories of success for certain students , the overall picture of success at two-year community colleges is dismal . According to the Community College Research Center at Teachers College , Columbia University , only 22 % of students graduate within three years , and 28 % graduate within four . More telling , 80 % of students say they want a bachelor 's degree or higher , and yet only 20 % of these students transfer to a four-year institution within five years . Even for those who earn a community college degree , it often is n't as useful as other options . Thanks to credential inflation , pursuing a professional certification — which more clearly indicates a person 's skills than a degree — often pays off better than an associate 's degree , according to Census Bureau data . The conversation around making community college free also masks a larger problem , which is that community colleges are already heavily subsidized and far less affordable than commonly believed . At $ 3,300 , community college tuition is well under the $ 5,730 currently available in Pell Grant aid to low-income students . But the expenditure per student at a community college — the true cost of the education — is far higher , about four times more at $ 13,000 per student . That means that more than 60 % of the cost of community college is n't paid for through tuition , but through various forms of government aid at the federal , state and local levels . As a result , even if the President 's plan passed , it would n't help the large number of already-overcrowded community colleges that have waiting lists numbering in the thousands . Tuition is only a small part of the funding needed to educate additional students . What 's more , because of the limited productivity gains possible in the community college model , those costs will continue to rise , which means that tuition will , too . The proposal 's $ 60 billion price over 10 years is likely to grow with only a questionable return on the investment . Opinion : Two years of free community college makes sense . The larger question the proposal misses is not how to allow students to afford college , but how to make college affordable . There 's a huge distinction . The focus should be to make postsecondary education less costly and of better quality , such that the question of how to afford it becomes manageable . The President 's proposal merely charges education , in the form of debt for future generations of taxpayers , rather than changes it . Instead we need to encourage students to seek innovative offerings that are lower cost and improve the quality and accessibility of higher education . Such options are emerging . Patten University offers a new online , competency-based program that charges undergraduate tuition of $ 350 per month , or $ 1,316 per term . Tuition includes access to as many courses as one can complete and all the ebooks and course materials needed , and Patten receives no government funding . Another online , competency-based program , Southern New Hampshire 's College for America , charges annual tuition of $ 2,500 . Rather than supporting innovative options like Patten and Southern New Hampshire , the President 's plan would nudge students toward a community college sector that is incapable of repositioning its model around student success and fuel rising college costs . 5 ways community colleges are fixing higher education . If enacted , the President 's proposal would be unlikely to achieve its ultimate aims and would exacerbate a larger problem lurking behind college financing . Although the plan amounts to little more than political posturing given the current congressional makeup , it will negatively influence the political conversation around higher education in the years ahead . By supporting free community college , President Obama is merely kicking the can down the road for future generations to confront . We need a better strategy for skills training overall before we go further down the track of subsidizing students to attend community college only to emerge with little to show for it .
In his SOTU , President Obama proposed making community college tuition free for two years . Michael Horn : We need a better strategy for skills training before going down the track of subsidizing students .