It’s Time to Make Community College Tuition and Debt Free for Michiganders

Earlier this month, Senator Bernie Sanders joined Governor Andrew Cuomo to announce a New York college promise plan, which would provide residents with the opportunity to attend any university in New York tuition free for families making less than $125,000 annually. This is a big idea, and the kind of bold thinking Michigan needs in order to be successful in today’s economy.

New York isn’t the only state in the nation to expand public education to include tuition free education at public universities — Tennessee, Oregon and Minnesota already offer two years of tuition free community college to all high school graduates. A similar proposal in Michigan would be an economic boon for our state.

Here in Michigan, we have the hardest working and most innovative people in the world. We put the world on wheels and built the American middle class. But in order to continue being competitive in a global economy, we must ensure that our workers are getting the necessary training and education to compete. By 2020, it’s estimated that 30 percent of jobs will require at least an associate’s degree. These are good-paying jobs that Michiganders can raise a family on.

The state has a role in properly preparing young people to find productive and fulfilling careers to support themselves and their families. Two years of public community college — where students gain valuable skills and jobs training — will do just that. In addition, it will ease the increasingly crushing student debt burden imposed on recent graduates.

On average, students who graduate from a Michigan public university will have nearly $30,000 in student loan debt. This debt negatively impacts both the graduate and the overall economy. Every dollar used to pay their debt is a dollar that does not go to buying a home or car, contributing to their retirement or starting a new business. If we expand public education to include tuition free community college, a student in Michigan will have one-third less debt if they chose to continue on to a four-year institution. Simply, two years of community college will allow all students to get ahead both academically and financially.

And in terms of improving Michigan’s economy, this proposal will benefit all Michiganders, not just students. Companies will be more willing to stay and even relocate to Michigan if they know that there are plenty of qualified graduates ready to work and innovate on day one. This is because many businesses already rely on our education system and community colleges to provide the necessary trainings for their workers. Moreover, the program will incentivize talented and educated young people to remain in Michigan where they can contribute to the local economy and tax base. Finally, an educated workforce is a strong workforce, ready to compete in today’s economy and be the engine of our state’s future.

Some will argue that Michigan’s state budget cannot afford this proposal. But I would argue we cannot afford not to invest in our people — both to ease the financial cost on them and improve the overall economy. Other states have already concluded that expanding public education is a solid investment that pays dividends in return.

Tennessee’s Promise, which expands public education to guarantees tuition free community college to every Tennessean, when used in combination with existing state and federal aid programs, only costs $34 million annually. This sounds like a lot of money, but in comparison the state of Michigan’s annual budget is near $54 billion.

During the 2016 State of the Union, President Obama called for public education to include two years of community college nationwide. In Congress, I was proud to cosponsor legislation to help do just that. Now Michigan has a real opportunity to lead the nation by guaranteeing two year of tuition free community college for all Michigan students. Michigan was the first state in the country to publicly fund high schools — let’s continue to be leaders in public education by making a community college education available for all.