Rhode Island Reacts to Big Items in the State of the Union Address
Twitter: @markcurtisABC6
In President Obama’s State of the Union address, he’ll offer $500 dollar per year tax credits to most married couples.
And a host of other ideas his fellow Democrats like.
“Increasing people’s wages; getting American’s back to work; rebuilding the middle class of this country that’s been really hollowed out by this recession. Making college, and in particular community college affordable,” said Rep. David Cicilline, (D)
That last item took us to the
Students who attend half–time, and maintain a two–point–five average would get that free tuition.
“Financial aid doesn’t do as much as it could for some people, so I think it is a great idea,” said CCRI student Halsey Gargano.
“The biggest struggle nowadays is not being able to go to the school that you want to go to, because you can’t afford it,” said CCRI student Alyssa Petrarca.
The tuition proposal would need Congressional and state approval.
ABC Chief Political Reporter mark Curtis said, “Now the President’s Community College proposal is being widely praised in many circles. But there are some concerns.”
The program’s price tag would be $60 billion dollars, and every state would have to pay a 25 percent share of its federal grant.
“We should offer free college to everybody if we could, but we can’t. So the hard reality is, I don’t know where he’s going to get the money,” said State Rep. Joe Trillo, (R) Warwick.
In an ABC6 satellite interview with the White House, aids called the plan affordable.
“And we pay for things like this by making sure that we close unfair tax loopholes that really only benefit the wealthiest one–percent, like closing the trust fund loophole. So that’s an example of the kind of thin the President’s going to lay out tonight. He’s really excited about the speech,” said White House Deputy Communications Director Amy Brundage.
