A day after Tennessee’s governor, Bill Haslam, proposed making two years of community college free for graduating high-school seniors in that state, a similar proposal has advanced in the Oregon legislature.
The education committee of the State Senate on Tuesday approved a bill that would require the state’s higher-education coordinating board to study the idea and report back to the legislature this year. That could set up a potential up or down vote on the proposal in the 2015 legislative session, The Oregonian reported.
Gov. John Kitzhaber supports the bill, but with some caveats. He suggested creating incentives–such as good grades–for students to qualify, and other safeguards to ensure the money is spent wisely.
Supporters, including Gov. John Kitzhaber, hailed the proposal as a groundbreaking way to ensure more Oregonians go to college and to reduce the increasingly weighty debt load students take on.
It would cost between $100-million and $200-million to cover the two-year cost of community college tuition for the 32,000 student who get high school diplomas each year, said Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, chair of the committee and champion of the bill.
Read more at: www.oregonlive.com
