If you thought President Obama’s stumping for “free” community college was nothing but hot air, you were likely wrong. It may have been mostly hot air, but the power of the bully pulpit is not to be underestimated. Here in North Carolina, home of a “trifecta” Republican government, legislators appear to have fallen for the president’s big-government spell. Rep. Jeffrey Elmore (R-Wilkes), primarily supported by three fellow Republicans, has sponsored a “scholarship” bill to make community college tuition-free for high-achieving students. It passed the House Education Committee Tuesday, and almost no one objected.

The bill is superficially conservative; it is directed at high school graduates with at least a 3.5 GPA, who might otherwise enroll at a UNC institution that costs the taxpayer $9,000 more per student than does the average community college. The bill’s stated purpose:

(1)        Encourage higher?performing students at community colleges.
(2)        Utilize the State’s educational resources to the fullest.
(3)        Create more educational and career options for students.
(4)        Realize significant cost?savings to the State.
(5)        Develop a more competitive workforce.

Would the law actually accomplish any of those items? Item #1, maybe, but why do we want to encourage our best and brightest to attend community colleges, if not for the cost savings (#4, which I’ll get to in a second)? Further, this goal assumes that a 3.5 GPA is a reliable measure of high performance. Even if it is now, you can bet high schools, especially low-income ones, will lower standards to help their students afford higher education. (This will, in turn, reduce standards at community colleges.)

On #3 and #5, the state cannot, and should not try to, create economic opportunity from the top down. And there is no reason to think putting more people in community college will increase “career options” or competition in the workforce. Improving standards at all levels will do that, along with reducing state-imposed barriers to private-sector competition.

Would the law save the state money? Not likely. There is nothing stopping UNC schools from filling those seats with other students. Not to mention the huge potential for a slippery slope effect, which is part of what made the president’s similar proposal scary. My colleague Jay Schalin writes:

It may be the start of free community college for all. Or something like the Hope Scholarship in Georgia, for which they kept reducing standards until it became a massive middle-class entitlement that can’t be killed.

That brings us to #2: Does this bill “utilize the State’s educational resources to the fullest?” It certainly intends to, but there are much better ways to do that. Community college is affordable or free of charge for the vast majority of North Carolina students. Instead of being used to expand education entitlements, state resources would be better spent improving the faltering standards at all levels of education.