Biden’s American Families plan to offer free college for American students
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
President Biden announced a $1.8 trillion American Families Plan ahead of his first address to Congress Wednesday. The plan includes having universal, quality-preschool to all three and four-year-olds and It will provide Americans two years of free community college.
The American Families Plan will also provide direct support to families to make sure that low- and middle-income families spend no more than seven percent of their income on high-quality child care. According to the administration, this would save the average family $14,800 on child care expenses a year.
You can watch a replay of the speech to Congress in the player.
Here is Missouri, Republican Representative Chuck Basye said the American Families Plan is a "ridiculous" idea.
"Any time you say free nothing is free in life and this isn't free, somebody is going to be paying for it, and if the government is doing it that means it's going to be taxpayers so it's not free, I think it's a ridiculous idea," Bayse said.
However, Missouri Democratic Representative Richard Brown said this is a very inclusive plan to help Americans get educated, as well as support Missouri families.
"This is a start in the right direction," Brown said. "Families are asking for help out there, and right here in Missouri I see this as a way to help out our families here and take care of our own."
Aubrey Kelley, a student at Ozarks Technical Community College, said the education aspect of the plan will encourage more young students to get a higher education.
"I love that idea, I feel like a lot more students who be more inclined to go to college if they didn't have the side effects of debt," Kelley said.
Kelley said she has seen first hand what college debt can do, and not having that burden will be a huge relief for students and their families.
"My dad did not go to college because of a financial burden and my mom waited a few years, and she was in debt for $15,000 and she went to OTC," Kelley said.
The American Families Plan consists of about $1 trillion in investments and $800 billion in tax cuts for American families and workers.
Biden will also be proposing a set of measures to ensure wealthy Americans pay their share in taxes. The measures will ensure that no one making $400,000 per year or less will see their taxes go up.
Biden also signed the American Rescue Plan back in March, which focused on direct financial payments to individuals, state and local governments during the pandemic, and also assisted with funding for coronavirus vaccine rollout.
