By Kyra-lin Hom

The latest Obama news spike to hit the air is his proposal for 'free' community college nationwide. If the proposal passes Congress and then the states, community college will be funded 75% by the Federal Government and 25% by the relevant state. The total estimated federal cost would be $60 billion over the next 10 years. Of course there are a few more details than that, but you get the gist.

Since its announcement, the mud has been flying back and forth on whether or not this is financially feasible, socially acceptable or even just some big political ploy to make the opposing republicans look bad. All of that aside, at least it's brought the issues of college tuition and student debt back into the political mainstream.

For those who haven't had to deal with college in the last so many years, think of it like America's healthcare system. What's provided free is largely worthless; what's in highest demand can charge whatever it likes because the 'customers' aren't the ones coughing up the cash (just choking on the debt); and those in between get swept along for the ride. This all might be worth it if product quality was rising along with cost, but we all know that's not the case. Yes, America's education system is defective, and we're all suffering for it. That's not a new tune.

(For the record, I don't mean free education is 'worthless' in that it provides a bad education. Rather I mean that it's generally worth very little in the job market or as social capital.)

Completely nixing community college tuition might be radical enough to force a change. Ivy leagues and other nationally prestigious institutions probably wouldn't be affected, but the rest of the four-years would suddenly have to compete with community colleges. Why, for example, would a student pay $50,000 to attend all four years at UW when they could cover core (not degree specific) curriculum at South Seattle Community College for free then transfer to UW as a junior? Or Seattle Pacific University where tuition is $35,000 for just one year?

But wait, can't students do that now since community college is already significantly cheaper? Technically yes, but it's a messy process. Many universities won't accept community college credit and instead force transfer students to take some if not all of those classes again. To make it worse, no two university transfer policies are alike so there isn't a guaranteed way for students to anticipate this either. Obama's proposal intends to facilitate this process.

So government-funded community college could help America's college crisis by compelling competition – hopefully at least in quality if not cost. Then again, it could also fail miserably and turn community college into the new high school.

Despite trade schools and certificate programs slowly gaining more respect, our national narrative still dictates that you need a four-year degree to get a good job. Universities know this, which is why they charge what they do. That four-year tuition cost of $150,000 isn't for your time spent. It's for that sheet of paper you get at the end.

As long as the four-year degree remains the perceived key to a better job, universities can continue charging whatever they want, which could mean significantly raising prices to account for the students they are losing to free community college. And guess what? As long as the loans are available, students will take them to get their degrees. Most assume they're going to default at some point anyway so what's an extra $50k in the hole? As of 2013, 13.7% of people in their third year of repayment were already in default.

Obama's proposal for free community college is good in that it's forcing the discussion, but it may not more than graze the bigger picture.