President Releases Budget for FY 2017, Requests Funding for AmericaÔÇÖs College Promise Program

​President Obama released the final budget request of his presidency yesterday, requesting a total of $69.4 billion for the Department of Education for FY 2017.

Beyond the annual funding for the Department of Education, the budget also includes an additional $139.7 billion in new mandatory funding, including $60.8 billion for America’s College Promise (ACP), the president’s free community college initiative announced last year.

Under the FY17 budget, ACP would create a new partnership with states to make two years of community college free for responsible students and would now also provide grants to four-year HBCUs and MSIs to provide new low-income students, including community college transfers, with up to two years of college at free or significantly reduced tuition.

However, as Doug Lederman wrote this morning in Inside Higher Ed, “the 2017 budget the president proposed Tuesday is a largely symbolic document that is unlikely to significantly influence federal policy.”

http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/WEDNESDAY-BUZZ-President-Releases-...