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Obama's Community College Plan Wins Praise from Maine Educators

President Obama's plan to offer two years of free community college to any American is drawing praise from elected officials and educators in Maine.

John Fitzsimmons, who heads Maine's Community College System, says the plan would be especially helpful to one group struggling to pay for higher education.

Maine's community colleges have the lowest tuition in New England. Eighty-two percent of students in the system are on financial aid.

But Fitzsimmons says 37 percent of those enrolled don't qualify for Pell Grants from the federal government.

"This now means, for the first time, middle-class Mainers, who are poor and trying to pay for college, they're going to have a program that actually works for them."

The White House says the program would cost $60 billion over 10 years. Unveiling it in Tennessee, Obama said it would help train more workers and make the U.S. more competitive in the global economy.

The president, though, will have a tough job selling the idea to a new, Republican-controlled Congress that's not likely to get behind any big new spending programs.