WASHINGTON, D.C. — Alexia Guevira is used to overachieving. She got into almost every college she applied to in high school.
But with the acceptances came a dose of reality.
“I couldn’t afford it. My parents couldn’t afford it,” Guevira said.
Then the state of Maryland offered her a Promise Scholarship. It paid for her tuition at Prince George’s Community College as well as the first-generation college student’s expenses.
“It was a sense of relief. I was like ‘Wow,’” Guevira said.
Four hundred miles south in North Carolina, Christina Vargas attends Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte.
“My brother went here. My mom went here,” Vargas said.
One reason is affordability. Community college costs far less than a four-year school.
“In high school, you’re pushed to not even think of community college as an option. You’re pushed to go the highest Ivy League school. The one that charges you the most,” Vargas said.
Like Maryland, North Carolina provides scholarships, but only for students attending certain four-year universities.
“If your goal is to lower unemployment, and to make sure people have good paying jobs for a small amount of federal investment, free community college may be the way to go,” Davidson College Assistant Professor Chris Marsicano said.
Marsicano said making community college free would help more students get degrees and good-paying jobs.
“What we have across the country is a number of students one or two credits shy of graduating but have to drop out,” Marsicano said.
It’s with these arguments in mind that President Joe Biden proposed spending $109 billion to make all community college free. It’s part of his nearly $2 trillion American Families Plan.
Some Republicans quickly slapped down the plan, leaving its fate in doubt.
North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said it was “another socialist ploy to expand government overreach into American homes and families.”
Guevira got her associate’s degree in May and will attend the University of Maryland on a full scholarship in the fall.
She said not having to pay tuition for the first two years of school, or worry about debt, put her in a better position to succeed.
“Coming to Prince George’s Community College prepared me academically, it also helped me network with professors and the students I needed to meet in order to apply to the University of Maryland for a full ride,” Guevira said.