President Obama is proposing that the federal government pay the tuition of 9 million community college students.  As long as the students maintained a 2.5 grade average, the benefit would be available. There's only one small problem, according to the National Journal's Fawn Johnson: the president failed to say how he would pay for it. Without that crucial piece of the program, which would be available to students as long as they maintain a 2.5 grade-point average, the idea is little more than a pipe dream. It resembles Obama's proposal in 2013 for a universal pre-K program for 4-year-olds. To provide free public pre-K just for low-income families would cost $75 billion over 10 years. Early-education lobbyists are struggling to figure out how to persuade lawmakers to pony up for that small part of a larger proposal. (A cigarette tax is among the items they are bandying about.) When it comes to community colleges, the lobbyists haven't even gotten that...(Read Full Post)