President Obama delivered his sixth and penultimate State of the Union address on Tuesday night, in which he called for a focus on middle-class economics and outlined his plans for the final years of his administration.
Citing that current job growth rates are at their highest since 1999, college completion rates are at an all-time high, there is a decreasing dependence on foreign oil and the American combat mission in Afghanistan has ended, the President said that “the shadow of crisis has passed and the state of the union is strong.”
Among the various issues outlined in the speech was the president’s community college plan, which was unveiled Jan. 9 and aims to eliminate the cost of two years of community college tuition for qualified Americans who maintain at least a 2.5 grade point average.
Economics professor Bruce Sacerdote said that the plan is promising but is unlikely bring meaningful change to the current state of higher education.
“I’m sort of encouraged by this community college proposal, but the truth is that community college is already very affordable, and for the lowest income folks and low-income folks it’s extremely affordable because they have the Pell grant, which in most states more than covers the cost of community college,” he said. “I’m sure there’s a middle group of people who don’t get the full Pell for whom this could be helpful, but it’s kind of a funny thing.”
The words “college” appeared in the address a total of 12 times. Government professor Joseph Bafumi said that the Obama’s focus on community college is a natural extension of his economic interests.
“Obama talks a lot about outreach and giving people the opportunity to move up the socioeconomic ladder, so it’s no surprise that [he] supports community colleges and feels that they’re a useful way to economically empower people and improve the macroeconomy as a whole,” Bafumi said.
Obama also reported that his administration has been working to connect community colleges with employers to train students to fill high-paying jobs and called on companies to offer more apprenticeships that would allow workers to earn higher wages without a higher education degree.
College Republicans vice president Matt Zubrow ’17 said that Obama’s college plan circumvents more major issues that should be priorities on the president’s agenda.
“I’m not in favor of the community college bill that he’s talking about,” Zubrow said. “I think it’s interesting, but I think the president isn’t committed enough to address some of the issues that Republicans would like to deal with to even look at that, such as budget cuts to rein in the debt.”
Zubrow also praised the president’s delivery but said that the president didn’t make enough of an effort to reach out to Congress.
“He gave a really good speech in terms of the oration,” he said. “As usual, in a speech of this nature no matter which administration, they’re generally short on substance. There were no really new shockers here. I thought that he’d be a bit more conciliatory toward the new Republican Senate and House majorities.”
College Democrats president Spencer Blair ’17 said that the issues outlined in the speech were important benchmarks for the next two years.
“It’s great to see that President Obama intends to spend his last two years in office pushing forward important progressive goals like reducing income inequality, protecting labor rights, combating climate change, making higher education more affordable and pursuing freedom and equality for marginalized groups such as people of color and LGBTQ individuals,” Blair said.
He added that the College Democrats intend to promote that agenda by rallying support on campus and participating in the discussion surrounding it at all levels of government.
Bafumi said that he thought the speech was well-delivered, but was critical of the president’s mixed message.
“He did something that was perhaps a bit controversial — he listed a bunch of items that made Democrats look good and embarrassed Republicans some, but then at the end of his speech he talked about going back to being one America and people working together,” he said. “If there’s a criticism to be made from someone who’s in the center in following politics, it’s that there might have been a little bit of hypocrisy there.”
Spencer Blair is a member of The Dartmouth Staff.
