At this time of year, high school seniors face the expected "which college" question that unfailingly pops up at family gatherings. My standard response remains, "well my top choice is ____, but we'll see."
With the nation's college students battling $1.2 trillion in debt, the choice of "which college" increasingly hinges on costs.
So when President Obama announced his initiative to make community college "as free and universal in America as high school is today," students should have thrown away their financial woes, right?
Not so fast. A sampling of college and high school students in the Boston area remains unconvinced that free community college will solve college financing strains.
One source of skepticism involves the one-size-fits-all concept of federalizing community colleges. Julia Lay, a senior at the Boston College Lynch School of Education, said that funding for education "should be local because the states are so diverse. We need agriculture schools out west but not in the Bronx." The federal mandate seems out of sync with varied state needs.
Brenna Mitchell, a senior at the Montrose School, voiced concern that the attention paid to community college misses the mark for most college-bound students. "A better option, at least in Massachusetts, is to make state schools cheaper or to make government-funded scholarships and grants more accessible. An associate's degree is a foundation, but that shouldn't be the limit."
Mitchell's concerns reflect the pattern among Massachusetts students. Of the 75.6 percent of high students in Massachusetts who attend college, only 28.3 percent choose community college, according to a 2012 Massachusetts Department of Education study.
While free community college may work in some states, Obama's plan seems off the mark for the needs of college students in Massachusetts. Consistently, students voice that more effective and wide-reaching solutions should focus on lowering the cost of four-year degree programs.
Monica Stack is a student at the Montrose School in Medfield. Teachers — you can get your students published in the Herald! To participate, sign up for our free Newspapers in Education program at Boston HeraldNIE.com.
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