In Phila., Biden touts tuition-free community college

The single best way to strengthen the country is to invest in its students, Vice President Biden told a group of professors, students, and administrators at Community College of Philadelphia on Monday.

He was there to announce an Obama administration plan to spend $100 million to expand education and training programs that give community college students skills most in demand by employers.

The plan includes the president's initiative to offer tuition-free education to community college students, a proposal he announced last year.

Biden and his wife, Jill, a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, have traveled the country, meeting with college officials and employers, to discuss the plan. Jill Biden was with the vice president at CCP.

"Community colleges are America's best-kept secret," the vice president said to the obvious delight of about 100 students and faculty. "They're helping people get into jobs and into the middle class.

"In today's economy, all our community colleges are more important than ever."

At turns folksy and wonkish, Biden said much of the future depends on learning what skills are needed in the 21st-century American economy, and then matching student training to those needs.

Biden said many manufacturers complain that there are not enough skilled people to handle jobs in the modern workplace.

Under the White House plan, the Labor Department will award grants to partnerships among employers, workforce development boards, and community colleges.

A vital aspect of the plan is that community college education become tuition- and fee-free for students who maintain a 2.5 grade-point average. Students whose families earn $200,000 or more would not be eligible for free tuition.

Students who complete two-year community college programs and then go on to complete their education at four-year colleges will have earned degrees at half the price, since the community-college portion of their educations would be free, Biden said.

"We need to make college more affordable," he said.

Biden noted that CCP was one of the first community colleges to try a tuition-free plan, in the fall of 2015.

Before introducing her husband, Jill Biden, who grew up in Willow Grove, said she was "so proud" that a Philadelphia school was leading the way in the president's initiative.

She added that community colleges "have the power to change lives."

alubrano@phillynews.com

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@AlfredLubrano