Vice President Joe Biden used the White House weekly address on Saturday to call for an increase in taxes on wealthy Americans and banks to make community college free.
“It’s simple, folks,” Biden said. “Two years of community college should become as free and as universal as high school is today if we’re to make this economic resurgence permanent and well into the 21st century.”
Biden said the White House plan is to “close loopholes for the wealthiest investors” and impose a .07 percent fee on banks “to discourage the kind of risky behavior that crashed our economy just a few years ago.”
In the address, Biden sold the plan as “middle-class economics.”
“[T]o make sure everyone is part of this [economic] resurgence, we need to build on what we know widens the path to the middle class — and you all know what it is, access to education,” he said.
Biden said, however, that the plan isn’t a “give-away.” He said students who would seek to attend a community college in the government’s program would have to “keep their grades up and stay on track to graduate.” He also said states must contribute to the funding, and colleges receiving funding must “maintain high graduation and job placement rates.”
