President Barack Obama will visit Indianapolis Friday, Feb. 6. He will be speaking at Ivy Tech Community College about jobs and economics. Specific information about a time and location for the campus event has not yet been announced.

The President is expected to speak about the free community college initiative he announced last month during the State of the Union address. According to the White House, the program would cost approximately $60 billion over 10 years and would affect up to 9 million students. Questions have already been raised on how it would be financed.

Ivy Tech’s president has gone to Washington to speak with Obama about higher education on several occasions. Ivy Tech serves roughly 200,000 students each year, making it the largest singly-accredited statewide community college in the country.

Experts project that more than half the jobs in Indiana will require education beyond high school by 2018, but currently only 33 percent of adults in the state have an associate degree or higher.

Obama has also spoken recently in Idaho and Kansas about policies designed to help the middle class. Friday will be the seventh time he has visited Indiana since taking office.

Source: WTHR