By Richard Read
Governing
Oregon will almost certainly begin offering free tuition to some community-college students in fall 2016, leapfrogging all but one other state and a national proposal by President Barack Obama.
Mild criticism persists of the free-tuition measure shepherded through the Legislature by Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton -- and not from quarters you might expect. The Oregon Student Association and the Oregon Community College Association initially opposed Hass’s bill. Amendments dispelled their main concerns. But doubts persist over whether free tuition will reach the state’s neediest students.
Hass, a longtime education advocate, is pleased that Oregon will follow Tennessee, the first state to offer free tuition starting this fall. Gov. Kate Brown is expected shortly to sign his legislation, Senate Bill 81, assuming that no last-minute legal glitches surface.
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