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President Obama will unveil a new proposal to make the first two years of community college free for students during an event Friday in Tennessee previewing his State of the Union address.

But White House officials arent saying how much the program which one aide described as significant in scope will cost. Nor has the administration shared details of the initiative with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who would be necessary to approve the estimated billions of dollars necessary to provide free tuition.

Still, aides cast the proposal as a bold effort to refocus attention on the nations higher education system, and said even if the program wasnt fully realized, it could spur additional, badly-needed investment in the community college system.

White House Domestic Policy Council director Cecilia Munoz noted that after the presidents unrealized call in a previous State of the Union address for Congress to provide universal pre-K to low and moderate income families, some 30 states moved to expand access.

This is a proposal with bipartisan appeal, Munoz said. Making sure students have access to higher education and the skills that they need is not a partisan proposal.

According to the White House, an estimated nine million students could benefit from the program if all states decide to participate. The program is designed to replicate similar efforts underway in Tennessee and Chicago. Full-time students would save an average of $3,800 per year.

Put simply, what Id like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everyone whos willing to work for it, Obama said in a video posted to Facebook.

But officials also stressed that the presidents plan would require everyone to do their part.

Students would need to attend school at least half-time to qualify, maintain a 2.5 GPA, and make steady progress toward completing their program.

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Obama to propose free community college

President Obama rolled out a new plan Thursday to make two years of community college free, or nearly so, for millions of students across the country, a major investment that the White House cast as changing the face of higher education.

The program, inspired by new initiatives in Tennessee and Chicago, could benefit up to 9 million students, advisors said. At its heart is dedicated federal funding to cover 75% of tuition, with the states picking up the rest of the tab.

What Id like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who is willing to work for it, Obama said in a video filmed on Air Force One and posted Thursday on Facebook, ahead of his planned visit Friday to a community college and technical center in Knoxville, Tenn., as part of a trip designed to preview his policy plans for 2015.

White House advisors declined to say how much the proposal would cost or how the administration planned to pay for it, but experts said such a venture could cost the federal government tens of billions of dollars.

The investment would make two years of college the norm, policy advisor Cecelia Munoz said, a disruption of traditional higher education that comes as average tuition at a public four-year college has gone up more than 250% over the last three decades, according to government figures.

The community college proposal echoes one of Obamas favorite themes: empowering the middle class through education and opportunity. He sees the decline in state funding for higher education as a major barrier to those aspiring to the middle class.

Obamas proposal would make two years of community college as free as high school for responsible students, Munoz told reporters, saving a full-time community college student an average of $3,800 in tuition per year. Obama also plans to propose a new fund to pay for high-quality technical training programs.

In the Tennessee program, students can enroll at any of the states 27 colleges of applied technology, community colleges or four-year public universities offering an associates degree.

To get states to make their own version of that program, Obama would have to win congressional approval for the federal investment.

Anything involving more money to pay for things is going to be difficult in this Congress, said Ben Miller, a senior education policy analyst at the New America Foundation. Increasing investments in higher education are just hard to find.

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Obama plan for free community college: U.S. would pay 75%, states 25%

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