U.S. President Barack Obama is reportedly aiming to give students studying at community colleges two free years but the Republican-run Congress needs to approve the bill first.

In a statement, the White House explained that the plan does not have any official budget yet but if all the states participate, Obama's proposal will be benefitting around nine million students annually. Each student will be able to save at least US$3,800 in tuition fees.

Like Us on Facebook

According to the officials of the Obama administration, Republican Governor Bill Haslam of Tennessee strongly influenced this proposal of Obama. Haslam's proposal called "Tennessee Promise" in the state allowed high school graduates to become eligible for two years of free community college beginning this 2015.

The proposal of Obama was planned together with Vice President Joe Biden and second lady Jill Biden. The project will be called "America's College Promise" and it will be introduced first at Pellissippi Community College located in Knoxville, Tennessee on Friday.

A video released by the White House showed the president talking about the goals he has in mind for 2015.

"What I'd like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who's willing to work for it," Obama said in the video. "It's something we can accomplish, and it's something that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world."

According to reports, the proposal would only be for students who had a C+ average and who attended school at least half-time. They are also required to make a steady progress towards the degree.

Community colleges would have to offer academic programs that can fully transfer credits to local public four-year colleges or universities. In addition, these institutions are also required to provide promising institutional reforms in order to improve the outcome of students.

A federal funding will be needed in order to cover at least three-quarters of the average tuition in a community college and states are asked to pay the rest of the tuition. 

Although the proposal looks promising, critics are pointing out flaws of the said project. College Access and Success says that living expenses, textbook, and even transportation are being overlooked.

Bryce McKibben, a policy adviser to the Democrats, said that the program could end up being grabbed by less needy students than those who actually need it the most. 

TagsObama, community college, U.S. Congress, free education, Tennessee Promise, America's College Promise