Free tuition for public colleges and universities doesn’t make it to the starting gate

President Joe Biden's hope of making public colleges and universities tuition free for families earning less than $125,000 is languishing.

Biden included several higher-education provisions in the American Families Plan he released in April, including a proposed $109 billion to ensure that "first-time students and workers wanting to reskill can enroll in a community college to earn a degree or credential for free."

As the American Families Plan morphed into a legislative vehicle known as the Build Back Better bill, however, the community college provision was removed in an effort to limit the package's price tag, which was seen as an obstacle to passage in both chambers.

But the tuition-free colleges proposal didn't even make it that far. It wasn't included in either the American Families Plan or in the Build Back Better bill. So we rate the promise Stalled.