In a recent press conference, Barack Obama proposed that the first two years of community college tuition be free. Much to my disbelief, this has been deemed as “frivolous spending” by

many officials. Do they realize that had the rise in college costs stayed in line with the inflation, the $10,000 to attend college in 1985 would be $21,947.12 today? Instead, it’s over $50,000. Obama seems to ever the be the advocate for education as he has already doubled the money for Pell Grants, capped new loan payments at 10% of income and expanded education tax credits, providing up to $10,000 for four years of college tuition, a fragment of the cost. No high school graduate in the 21st century can pay for their college education with just a part-time job.

Being a highschool student, college is constantly on my mind and this sounds like not only an amazing opportunity for myself but for people that have no way of paying their college tuition and/or have already accepted that they may be on the receiving end of a debt dog-pile.  Those who plan on not attending college at all and think a high school diploma is all they need, have to realize that bachelor degrees are the high school diplomas of the 21st century. All students need to do is prove they are state residents, maintain a 2.0 GPA and do eight hours of community service per semester.

This possibility has brought along new hope for me, even though I do not plan on attending a community college after high school and would like to go straight to a four-year university. The hope that soon people will have higher aspirations than just getting out of highschool with a mere diploma, doing the bare minimum. This advancement in our education system can better our country as a whole. The weight on my shoulders feels dramatically lessened and this was only a proposition. Emancipating ourselves from the burden of a price tag—something that should never be the reason one can not acquire an education—opens up so many possibilities that I have yet to even dream about.