Confirming that the Biden administration has abandoned its efforts to pass tuition-free community college--a signature campaign promise--First Lady JIll Biden on Monday offered a stark reminder, according to one critic, of "how low we, the people, are on the U.S. list of priorities."
The first lady spoke at the Community College National Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C., telling attendees that President Joe Biden has not found a way to keep the community college provision in the Build Back Better Act, his social spending and climate package, as Democrats continue to negotiate the bill.
"As a first-generation college graduate and former community college professor in the poorest big city in America, this is unacceptable."
"Joe has also had to make compromises," said Biden, a longtime educator who currently teaches at a community college. "Congress hasn't passed the Build Back Better legislation--yet. And free community college is no longer a part of that package."
Biden expressed her own disappointment in the Democratic Party's failure to coalesce around the president's domestic agenda, suggesting that right-wing Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia--who pressured the White House to remove key climate and social spending provisions from the package last year only to announce in December that he would not support it--was to blame.
"I was disappointed," the first lady told the room of community college leaders from across the country. "Because, like you, these aren't just bills or budgets to me, to you, right? We know what they mean for real people, for our students."
"It was a real lesson in human nature that some people just don't get that," Biden added.
During the 2020 campaign, the president focused on his promise of providing two years of tuition-free community college to eligible students, while progressive candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for a return to tuition-free public college.
"I'm used to managing expectations but I shouldn't have to manage them down to nothing," tweeted journalist Kelsey Atherton on Monday after the first lady said the White House has, for now, accepted defeat of Biden's more modest proposal.
Under the Build Back Better Act, Biden proposed spending $45.5 billion to make two years of tuition free for five years, with states opting into the program and the federal government fully covering it for the first year before cost-sharing with the states began.
The yearly cost of providing tuition-free community college is equal to what the Pentagon spends in a matter of days, tweeted Security Policy Reform Institute founder Stephen Semler and anti-war group CodePink.
Experts have said eliminating tuition for community college students would increase enrollment, which has fallen by about 10% in the past few years, and could result in higher earnings for graduates.
But the president and congressional Democrats have backed away from Biden's campaign promise for several months, with House Democrats leaving the provision out of the Build Back Better package it passed in November and instead offering aid for community colleges and education grant programs.
As Democrats attempt to secure the support of Manchin, Biden has also said the expanded child tax credit which provided millions of working families with monthly direct payments of up to $300 per child last year will not make it into the package.
Journalist Heidi N. Moore suggested that Biden's failure to strengthen social supports for families could leave voters with the impression that the Democrat has done little to meaningfully affect their day-to-day lives.
The first lady said Monday that the White House will try to include benefits for community college students into future legislation, and Democrats are examining ways to provide tuition assistance to some students in the Build Back Better Act.
The abandonment to the free community college plan, however, is "unacceptable," according to U.S. Senate candidate Nina Turner.
"Congress needs to fight for this," she said.
