{"id":23142,"date":"2015-01-09T16:41:34","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T21:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=23142"},"modified":"2015-01-09T16:49:51","modified_gmt":"2015-01-09T21:49:51","slug":"south-florida-college-leaders-support-presidents-free-college-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/01\/09\/south-florida-college-leaders-support-presidents-free-college-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida College Leaders Support President&#8217;s Free College Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_23143\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The president of Broward College supports President Barack Obama's proposal to offer students two years of college tuition-free.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/01\/1-9-BrowardCollege.png\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-23143\" alt=\"The president of Broward College supports President Barack Obama's proposal to offer students two years of college tuition-free.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/01\/1-9-BrowardCollege-300x168.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/01\/1-9-BrowardCollege-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/01\/1-9-BrowardCollege-620x347.png 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2015\/01\/1-9-BrowardCollege.png 1271w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">John O&#39;Connor \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The president of Broward College supports President Barack Obama&#39;s proposal to offer students two years of college tuition-free.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The leaders of two of the nation\u2019s largest community colleges say they support President Barack Obama&#8217;s proposal to give students two years of college for free.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2015\/01\/09\/obama-free-community-college-tennessee-speech\/21504849\/\">Obama proposed the idea in Tennessee Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In a written statement, Broward College president J. David Armstrong says the proposal could mean more training for teachers, nurses, paramedics, firefighters and police. That&#8217;s good for the economy, he says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The proposal &#8220;provides unprecedented access and opportunity for all to attend the first two years of college and earn a certificate or associate&#8217;s degree since it directly addresses economic barriers for those seeking the American Dream,&#8221; Armstrong says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Miami Dade College already offers full scholarships to many students.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">President Eduardo Padron says community colleges support the idea because the cost of college often prevents students from finishing their studies.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;We are confident that this initiative will make a tremendous difference in college completion and further improve our nation\u2019s economy by creating a skilled workforce,&#8221; Padron says.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Critics worry the federal government could <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/ed\/2015\/01\/09\/375894591\/obama-in-tennessee-to-promote-free-community-college\">shift financial aid from poor students to middle class students to pay for the program.<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Congress would have to approve the president\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The leaders of two of the nation\u2019s largest community colleges say they support President Barack Obama&#8217;s proposal to give students two years of college for free. Obama proposed the idea in Tennessee Friday. In a written statement, Broward College president J. David Armstrong says the proposal could mean more training for teachers, nurses, paramedics, firefighters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":23143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1057,1104,774],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23142"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23145,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23142\/revisions\/23145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}