President Barack Obama's proposal last month to give out $12 billion in federal funds to community colleges across the country will leave out four-year institutions like Penn State.
The money would be available to community colleges to help raise their graduation rates, said Walter Asonevich, president of Pennsylvania Highlands Community College, which covers Centre County.
The bill for the American Graduation Initiative has not yet passed, but proponents hope it will help five million more people graduate from college during the next 10 years.
The original amount was set at $10 billion but has been advanced $2 billion for building and laboratory development, according to the White House press center.
"Community colleges are an essential part of our recovery in the present and our prosperity in the future," Obama said in a speech at a Michigan community college this summer. "Time and time again, when we place our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result."
Don Heller, director of Penn State's Center for the Study of Higher Education, said many community colleges receive less funding than the four-year institutions in their county -- and it seems only appropriate to focus the increase on them. But some students feel Obama's plan should be spread more widely.
"Community colleges are already supported by taxes from the local community," Michael Reed (freshman-mechanical engineering) said. "This would be another one of Obama's fiscal policies that support the working class at the expense of others."
That said, the administration can already make the argument that it has done plenty for the student grants, Heller said. Because many Americans depend on community colleges for their degrees, Heller thinks it is important to focus the stimulus on them.
Patrick M. Early, vice president of public relations and marketing at Harrisburg Area Community College, said in a written statement that the school could do with more funding, especially in Pennsylvania.
"We already know we are a major economic engine powering this region," he said in the statement. "Our annual impact on the region totals more than a billion dollars, and our graduates increase their earning power by more than $400,000 over their lifetime."
