Dear Commons Community,
Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, announced yesterday that free community college tuition is no longer a part of the Build Back Better Bill. In the brief video clip above, she laments that this vital part of her husband’s agenda has been scuttled at least for now.
First lady Jill Biden said that she was “disappointed” one of her key causes, free community college, was cut Build Back Better agenda.
“My husband Joe has had to make compromises,”she said of her husband’s $2.2 trillion spending plan during remarks at the Community College National Legislative Summit in Washington, DC.
“Congress hasn’t passed the Build Back Better agenda — yet. And free community college is no longer a part of that package. We knew this wouldn’t be easy — Joe has always said that. Still, like you, I was disappointed,” she added.
Biden, a longtime educator currently working as an English professor at a Northern Virginia community college, has for the last several years pushed for the inclusion of two years of free community college for eligible students as part of then-candidate Joe Biden’s campaign platform and then as part of the Biden administration’s legislative agenda.
The President’s Build Back Better plan has faced an uphill battle inside Congress, involving intense negotiations after receiving significant pushback from key Senate Democrats, notably centrists Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
The original Build Back Better bill included $45.5 billion for states to offer two years of free community college tuition for a period of five years. However, in a news conference last month, President Biden told reporters he was worried that component of his spending plan would not make the final cut.
“There’s two really big components that I feel strongly about that I’m not sure I can get in the package,” he said. “One is the child care tax credit, and the other is help for cost of community colleges.”
The admission Monday by the first lady in her remarks to the assembled community college leaders was the first time she had confirmed that this agenda item was dead.
Those of us who live in states with free community college tuition, know its benefits well.
Sad day!
Tony
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