Heed Obama’s education call

Critics and pundits were quick to dismiss Democratic President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address as dead on arrival, delivered as it was to a Congress controlled by an unfriendly GOP. This conventional view, however, overlooks that some of the president’s goals resonate in blue states and red states alike.

Unlike in recent years, when control of the House and Senate was divided, Republicans wield full congressional authority and will have no excuse for failing to make progress on the president’s most reasonable and feasible strategies to lift up the middle class in a country prone to deeper economic divides.

Upgrading vital infrastructure such as ports, roads, bridges and rail systems and expanding Americans’ access to the fastest Internet are government investments that should not be held hostage to political gridlock, to cite just a few examples from the president’s speech. Achieving those aims will benefit everyday citizens and drive economic activity that helps state, county and municipal governments. Even Obama’s fiercest critics are likely to hear from their constituents if they stand in the way of those kinds of local improvements.

Likewise, Obama’s proposal to subsidize community college is no pie-in-the-sky scheme designed to energize the base. It is a rational response to the need to propel educational attainment in a nation where two in three jobs will require some college education or training, by the end of this decade.

Higher education is the greatest economic equalizer the United States has ever known, and will ever know. Study after study shows that a college degree remains a reliable route to the middle class, a ramp out of the minimum-wage life. Given that in America a person’s socioeconomic status correlates directly with educational attainment, and that the majority of students in U.S. public schools come from low-income families — the figure is 51 percent in Hawaii — the president’s plan is both timely and urgent. It would make the financial ability to attend college a given, rather than an aspiration, from the time a child enters kindergarten. It is hard to overstate the effect of these raised expectations, on students, parents and teachers. Suddenly, K-12 simply isn’t enough.

The president proposes offering two years of "free" community college to students who maintain a set grade-point average and progress toward a degree. The initiative is projected to cost taxpayers $60 billion over 10 years; the federal government would pay 75 percent, with participating states paying the other quarter.

There are plenty of potential pitfalls to probe moving forward. A more thorough assessment of the costs and funding sources is necessary. Whether subsidizing only community college could thwart innovations in online learning, decrease attendance at four-year institutions, or spike tuition at community colleges relying on a steady stream of government funds all are valid questions. There’s also the fear that lower-income students eager for the subsidy would be marginalized at lower-tier, two-year campuses, allowing wealthy students to dominate first-tier, four-year universities.

All of those issues should be explored by Republicans and Democrats as part of a serious, bipartisan congressional effort to increase access to higher education and make college more affordable for everyone. If Obama’s plan can be improved, it should be. But it should not be scrapped. The president’s core recognition that the very definition of public education must expand to include at least some college is not only good for the students, it is good for the country.