When Joe Biden became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020, he sat down with the runner-up, Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, and created the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force to merge some of Sanders’s most popular policy proposals into Biden’s comparatively moderate platform. Co-chaired by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, and former Secretary of State John Kerry, the task force produced 110 pages of progressive policy recommendations, ranging from establishing a $15 federal minimum wage and universal health care, to calling for better federal oversight of police and adopting a climate framework similar to Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal.”

Collaboration with progressives also pushed Biden to take a slightly bolder stance on the higher-education affordability crisis. As Sanders’s campaign push in the 2020 primaries to cancel student debt and make public universities and colleges free was a major mobilizing force among young voters, Biden promised to cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt per person and to make both two- and four-year public colleges and universities free for students with family incomes under $125,000.

These policies went further than some expected, but they weren’t revolutionary. After all, broad bipartisan support already existed for a more expansive approach than what Biden proposed: An estimated 63 percent of Americans (and, notably, 52 percent of Republicans under fifty who have not completed a college degree) believe that public colleges and universities should be made tuition-free for all U.S. students. And advocacy groups urged President Biden to adopt a bicameral resolution by Democratic lawmakers in February 2021 to cancel $50,000 in student loans for federal borrowers.

But forget about going further; Biden has thus far failed to get even this bare minimum past the legislative stalemate caused by Senate Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia. In a town hall discussion with CNN’s Anderson Cooper last October, Biden vowed to get tuition-free community college done, adding that, “If I don’t, I’ll be sleeping alone for a long time”—a reference to his wife, Jill Biden, who teaches English at a community college. She’s since had to eat his words for him, because later last fall, Biden caved to pressure and slashed a proposal from his Build Back Better bill that would have put $45.5 billion toward establishing tuition-free community college. Speaking to a room full of community college administrators and advocates at a conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, the First Lady lamented that “Joe has . . . had to make compromises.”

The entire bill has now been in limbo for about six months, and the fact that tuition-free community college was so quickly derailed is a particularly sad testament to Congress’s inability to make even the most basic—and widely popular—investments in young people’s futures. Right now, many young progressives are being validated in their skepticism that Biden’s campaign promises would translate into immediate, concrete, and comprehensive higher-education reform.

If the Democratic Party seeks to prove them wrong and truly live up to its long-espoused belief in the right to accessible and affordable public education, which would help reverse the ever-widening wealth gap in this country, it must find a politically feasible way to enshrine student debt relief and tuition-free college proposals into law at the federal level.

And community colleges, specifically, are a critical place to start.

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With more than one in three of all undergraduate students enrolled in community college courses in the 2019–2020 academic year, community colleges remain a crucial pathway for millions of students to work toward a degree. Compared with four-year institutions, community colleges disproportionately serve students of color (Black and Latino students especially), students with disabilities, older students, ESL learners, part-time students with jobs, and lower-income students whose families make less than $50,000 a year. Though research shows that community college students are less likely to take on debt, and those who do owe a much smaller amount than students attending four-year institutions, they are more likely to default on the loans that they do take out, or drop out to continue to be able to afford living expenses, or both.

Yet some conservatives and moderate liberals continue to trivialize the impact that tuition-free community college would have on students, attempting to make the case that a two-year education is “already free” in a majority of states, or so cheap that having the state or federal government pay for it is a waste of taxpayer dollars.

The fact that tuition-free community college was so quickly derailed is a particularly sad testament to Congress’s inability to make even the most basic—and widely popular—investments in young people’s futures.

But the reality is that a tuition-free education isn’t entirely “free” unless it takes into account all of the other costs of attendance, from textbooks and transportation to rent, food, health care, and other basic necessities. Many community college students, nearly half of whom live paycheck to paycheck, are just one unexpected expense away from being forced to drop out. The difference of a few thousand dollars saved or lost can mean everything for the ability of millions of students to stay in school and graduate.

While tuition is waived for many community college students through a mix of federal, need-based Pell grants (limited to $6,495 per student, per year, in 2021–2022) and state- or locally-run College Promise programs that chip in to cover some or all of a student’s tuition, this patchwork approach leaves much to be desired. For example, not all College Promise programs have an equal impact on affordability. There are two main models: “first-dollar,” in which students can draw from the program first and federal aid second, if needed; and “last-dollar,” which requires students to use up federal grant money before turning to the program to cover the remaining balance.

As the Association of Community College Trustees explains, a “first-dollar” College Promise program “covers the direct costs of being a student, and has the potential to reduce the associated costs that come with being a student, such as transportation, childcare, school materials, and other costs.” In other words, a student can save more of their Pell grant money to use for other cost-of-living expenses under this model. Unfortunately, California has been the only state to implement such a program at a statewide level, while, in the nineteen “last-dollar” states—six of which award aid only to students in specified, high-demand programs—low-income students are forced to bear many other college-related costs on their own.

Making the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) a prerequisite for free tuition through College Promise programs also unfairly excludes undocumented students from receiving this aid. While some states, such as Washington and Oregon, offer state financial aid applications that are open to undocumented students and can be filled out in place of the FAFSA, most do not, leaving already vulnerable students who could enormously benefit from free tuition out of the policy equation entirely.

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When the role that community colleges play within higher education is diminished and efforts to waive comparatively lower tuition rates are belittled, not only are doors closed to countless students, but their ability to graduate is also impacted.

An eight-year demonstration project called “The Degree Project” offered first-time ninth graders in about half of the public high schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, $12,000 for college, under a “last-dollar” funding model (that regrettably excluded undocumented students by requiring the FAFSA, along with other requirements such as a 2.5 minimum GPA and a 90 percent attendance rate). Researchers tracked student outcomes over the eight years and found that “the program increased graduation from two-year colleges by three percentage points.”

“This might seem small,” the report adds, “but the denominator here is comprised of low-income ninth graders. Half of the control group did not even graduate from high school, let alone college. The effect amounts to a 25 percent increase in two-year degrees.” Additionally, given the choice, students were more likely to use the funding toward two-year degrees, where tuition would be completely free.

A holistic approach to solving the higher-education affordability crisis needs all hands on deck, and right now, Congress isn’t helping much. Progressives need to continue to push lawmakers and Biden to enact expansive student debt relief, which would widely benefit students and graduates of four-year colleges and universities, and community college students. At the same time, this mission must not forget the transformative power that community colleges have to lessen the debt crisis by helping students avoid taking on as much debt in years to come, a proactive approach that can be furthered by offering students the option to start their higher education journey for free.

We should see establishing a truly free two-year education model at the federal level as the first step among many toward creating a more equitable future. 

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