Sandoval: Too many unknowns in Obama’s community college plan

Gov. Brian Sandoval said Monday there’s no way he can respond to the president’s community college proposal until details of the plan are released.

President Barack Obama on Friday proposed a program that would provide all Americans with up to two years of community college for free. The plan would cost an estimated $60 billion during the next 10 years.

“Community college should be free for those willing to work for it because, in America, a quality education should not be a privilege that is reserved for a few,” he said in a speech at Pellissippi State Community College in Tennessee.

Sandoval said he doesn’t have enough information to judge the plan.

“All I know is what I read in the paper,” he said.

Sandoval said one of his concerns is that states would be required to match a certain amount of the cost to participate in the plan — 25 percent of the total cost.

He said, however, the program won’t be funded in Nevada’s 2016-2017 budget, which he will outline in his State of the State speech Thursday.

“Not in this budget,” he said. “It’s locked down.”

The White House said that, if Congress approves the plan, as many as nine million students could save an average of $3,800 a year in tuition.