Last month, President Obama unveiled a $12 billion plan to help community colleges prepare millions of Americans for a new generation of jobs over the span of the next 10 years. Part of this plan is the “American Graduation Initiative” - $9 billion set aside to create competitive grants awarded to schools that develop new programs and expand job training and counseling. In addition to inspiring innovation, this money could be spent renovating facilities and developing newer, more elaborate student tracking.

Online courses are also getting some much-deserved consideration, as $500 million of this budget will be allotted to create new online courses offered through community colleges. But, as with any government funding initiative, there’s some fine print: the funds would support government-created courses, which would be freely available in a “21st century library,” where they could be accessed by computer, handheld device, or an e-book reader like Amazon’s Kindle.

Why do schools like the idea? They could couple these new online courses with periodic face-to-face instruction, creating a well-rounded experience for students who need closer interaction with their professors while benefiting from the flexibility that comes with distance learning. Also, by engaging students through online learning technology, schools might keep enrollment numbers at a manageable level, since online courses could ease classrooms overflowing with students.

Why should students care? When schools expand their offerings with these government-created courses, students benefit from lower tuition fees and maybe even new degree programs to choose from down the line. An increased number of online courses could open up options to those students who work full-time or have families to take care of. Further, recent studies have shown students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course strictly through face-to-face instruction.

So then, why is it still up for discussion? There are a few questions that haven’t been made clear, such as how students would get access to the courses, how students would earn credits, and whether or not the free courses would be competitive alternatives to the many online community college courses already offered.

One thing is for sure though – online degree programs need this publicity and validation by the federal government. The government is showcasing its support of online learning initiatives, breaking barriers for those employers, students, and schools that are still skeptical about the value they bring.