Western Tech to offer free tuition

A response from Obama’s
request to two-year schools

Expect an announcement this year about free tuition at Western Technical College in La Crosse. 

President Lee Rasch says they’re working on details of the plan now, similar to what other tech colleges in the state are doing.

“I see this as a trend that’s going to continue,” Rasch said, “but we have to realize that it can only be for high-priority students for a given college region or community.”

The free tuition is a response to a call from President Barack Obama last year for two free years of tech school or community college. 

Rasch says plans are in the works for a program that will benefit qualifying students, and they are looking at other schools around the state as examples.

“We are looking for our approach to this concept,” Rasch said. “It’s not going to be exactly like these other colleges because the priorities in our region are different.”

And while free tuition for all students is something that one other state is already doing and a couple other are working on, “it’s probably not going to be the case in Wisconsin,” Rasch said, “at least for the foreseeable future.”

Rasch expects to release more details about the school’s free-tuition plans sometime later this year.