By Jenae Hackensmith and Sarah Stultz

Students at Riverland Community College are excited about the possibility of free community college, even if it won’t happen in their time.

“I think that’s a good idea,” Erin Byron, 49, said. “It’s giving people the chance to go to community college that would probably never have the chance to go to community college.”

President Barack Obama proposed a plan earlier this month to bring the cost of two years of community college “down to zero” for all Americans. Obama is calling the idea America’s College Promise. It’s modeled after Tennessee Promise, which Republican Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law last year to provide free community and technical college tuition for two years.

It has drawn 58,000 applicants, almost 90 percent of the state’s high school seniors.

In Minnesota, Senate-leading Democrats and majority House Republicans are both pitching targeted student-debt forgiveness programs.

The Senate DFL wants tuition-free classes at two-year colleges to incentivize technical education. The House GOP wants the industry-specific tax credits along with other tax cuts.

Obama announced his plan to offer free community college classes to help train the nation’s workforce, and Riverland Community College administrators have spoken favorably of the plans. However, the plans have drawn fire from University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler and some lawmakers at the state and federal levels.

Incentives for education

But the criticism hasn’t changed Riverland students’ opinions.

Byron said free community college would have helped her, as she has taken out student loans and foresees debt in her future.

Byron, who hopes to earn a degree in nursing from Riverland’s Austin campus, said many students in her hometown of Waseca live on a farm or are from single-parent homes. Their parents couldn’t afford to send them to school. Though she would like to see free college plans pass, she has doubts that it will get past Republicans who have balked at the project’s he hefty price tag.

Jacob Herold, 19, agreed that free college would be nice.

“Just from what I heard, I think it’s a very good idea,” he said. “I mean at least for the first two years it can take a lot of debt off graduated college students in the long run.”

Herold is in his first year in Austin, but he already owes about $4,000. If it weren’t for scholarships, he’d owe a lot more money, which can be difficult for a student to pay.

“Being a full-time college student, I don’t get a lot of hours at work,” Herold said.

Like Byron, Herold said he hopes the plan will pass.

“It can take a lot of pressure and stress off of graduating college students in the long run,” he said.

Jennifer Mucha of Albert Lea said she wishes Obama’s proposal had been in place when she started college. She will graduate in May.

She said she would be in favor of it as long as there are restrictions to make sure people keep up their grades.

Austin student Lizett Hernandez, 37, agreed debt forgiveness would be good, as long as there are stipulations.

“If they already can’t pay and they have good grades and they’re trying, too, I would say yes,” Hernandez said. “Because sometimes people struggle after they finish to pay all the debt.”

Many students Hernandez knows can only afford school through financial aid or scholarships.

Franco Ortiz of Austin, who is studying industrial maintenance with hopes to eventually be an engineer, said he has a few friends who went to work at factories because they couldn’t afford college.

If Obama’s proposal came to fruition, he said he thought more people would go to college. People would be motivated by the possibility of getting a better job with better pay.

“I think that would be a great idea,” Ortiz said.

Another industrial maintenance student, Cody Raatz of Albert Lea, said he thinks free college would increase high school graduation rates.

“It will give them that initiative to know that if I complete high school I can go further,” Raatz said.

He questioned, however, how the program would be funded and whether it would fall back on taxpayers.

A spotlight on education

Riverland President Adenuga Atewologun said he thinks the free college proposals are a step in the right direction; however, he said there are positive and negative effects that will come if the proposals pass.

“It is definitely a good spotlight on community colleges and their value,” he said. “We will benefit from that. We’ve seen that increase in recognition, in innovation, in academic environment that community colleges serve. We’ve seen that change, and we think that is in the direction of shedding more light on the value of community colleges. We think it’s going to reduce the debt load for many students.”

Mary Davenport, the college’s vice president of academic and student affairs, hoped the plans would help students reach their goals.

“It’s part of really the American dream,” she said. “When you look at American education historically, that everyone has the right to an education. And now higher education being so necessary, it’s part of how do you get to that American dream? And it seems like a natural extension … to the vitality of the American people.”

While based on a Republican governor’s plan, the $60 billion federal price tag for Obama’s free college plan would have to make the grade with a Republican Congress that is showing little appetite for big, new spending programs. He acknowledged there would be Republican opposition, but Obama argued that providing educational opportunity and creating a more skilled U.S. workforce shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

“They should put forward some alternative proposals,” Obama said during a speech at Boise State University in Idaho. “I want to hear specifically from them how they intend to help kids pay for college. It is perfectly fair for them to say we have a better way to meet these national priorities. But if they do they have to show what those ideas are.”

The White House estimated that 9 million students could eventually participate and save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year if they attend full time. Students would qualify if they attend at least halftime, maintain a 2.5 grade point average and make progress toward completing a degree or certificate program. Participating schools would have to meet certain academic requirements.

The White House said the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the cost and the final quarter would come from states that opt into the program — a cost of $20 billion over 10 years.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report.