WASHINGTON—With his plan for two years of free community college stalled in Congress, President Barack Obama is trying to put more oomph behind state and local programs that provide what he’s been unable to offer nationally.
Obama was teaming up with Jill Biden, the wife of the vice president and a community college teacher, to visit Macomb County Community College in Warren, Michigan, on Thursday. They planned to announce an independent College Promise Advisory Board, led by Biden, that will highlight existing programs providing free community college. The board also will try to recruit more states and communities to do likewise.
It will be a return visit to the community college for Obama, who went there in 2009 to announce a series of administration efforts to bolster community colleges. He followed that up earlier this year with a $60 billion proposal in his State of the Union address to make two years of community college free.
