Governor Phil Murphy came to Mercer to discuss his plans for free community college in a round table with students on April 5th.
He was joined by Mercer president Dr. Jianping Wang, acting Secretary of Higher Education Zakiya Smith Ellis, and Assemblyman Dan Benson of New Jersey’s 14th legislative district. They were joined by a panel of seven student representatives selected by the administrators to share what free college tuition would mean to them.
The hour long session included the governor’s presentation of a key measure of his current budget proposal that awaits legislative confirmation. The program will dedicate $50 million to provide what he described as “a major down payment” in an effort to make community college free for all students within three years, a project he said would cost $200 million in total.
He explained that $45 million would give free tuition to those with household incomes below $45 thousand, while the other $5 million would be split by the 19 state community colleges to help them handle the likely increase in enrollment.
In a statement released in response to the event, Senate Republican leader Tom Kean said, “No government-funded program is free. Taxpayers always pay the price and frankly, people in New Jersey pay far too much already.”
He continued, “What we shouldn’t do, is force overtaxed families to pick up the tab for Governor Murphy’s spending-spree.”
The Mercer representatives, a group of seven high performing students, from older returning students to those straight out of high school, voiced support for the plan, saying it would have made their own ability to get through school easier had it been available.
Jennifer Eng, Student Body President, said, “If I was to go off my own experiences, [free tuition] probably would have allowed me to go full-time at school instead of working part-time and going to classes part-time, which condenses the timeline of graduation.”
Murphy responded saying, “I’m a big believer that education ought to be a right not a privilege…I think you heard a whole lot of stories about life challenges, a lot of work, a lot of extending their years in school because they had to work to afford it.”
Dr. Wang replied, saying that although community colleges have low graduation rates, it wasn’t because of the students themselves.
“It’s not that they are not intellectually capable, not personally committed,” she explained, “it’s just that the financial burden takes them away.”
Governor Murphy agreed, concluding, “You look at a budget of 37.4 billion dollars, which is the budget that we presented, and you think that a very modest fraction of that will have an impact like the one we’re talking about, I think that may be the best investment that I know of.”
