Why did President Obama make his recent proposal to federally fund two years of community college to all students? Why would he do such a thing, knowing full well that there is very little chance for it to get through the Republican-controlled Congress?

We don’t know the full plan yet since the White House said it would reveal more during the State of the Union Address Jan. 20, and in February. Whatever the plan, President Obama has a deeper, unspoken agenda for making such a proposal.

The president made this announcement in Tennessee, which is in the process of doing exactly that — using state funds, as is Oregon. California has funded free or very low tuition and was a leader in the creation of “junior colleges” going back to 1900.

According to “Our View” in the Jan. 13 News Tribune, the Washington State Legislature has beaten the president to the punch. Although it has put pressure on two-year and four-year state colleges by relentlessly raising tuition, the Legislature also passed a measure giving out state need grants to 70,000 low-income students.

Since 2007, Washington state has offered a full tuition grant for both two- and four-year state colleges, if low-income students sign up in the seventh or eighth grades, maintain at least a C grade, graduate from high school and avoid getting in trouble with the law.

According to a report launched last March, this College Bound Program has been an enormous success.  Low-income students were enrolling at the same rate as students from middle-class families. The program appears to have also cut dropout rates for high school.

Obama’s plan will probably be modeled on Tennessee’s, which requires a 2.5 grade-point average. The cost of the president’s $60 billion proposal would have the federal government paying 75 percent of the bill with states picking up the remaining 25 percent, according to a Jan. 8 Wall Street Journal article.

Perhaps the president has advocated adding two years to high school because he knows that there are thousands of jobs in businesses not being filled for lack of skilled labor in this country. Many businesses might actually support such a jobs bill if the program works.

Perhaps he knows there is an enormous gap in lifetime income between those who get college degrees and those who don’t.

Perhaps by proposing this plan, he will create a national debate over the best way to improve the “educational infrastructure” of this nation. His proposal may not find traction in Congress, but it will put pressure on the Republicans to come up with their own plan. The president may be upping the bid for the 2016 election.

Republicans have to do something about immigration reform and now, since Obama has added the idea of paying for college tuition for students attending community colleges, they will have to come up with another plan that matches or betters the president’s.

If Republicans continue to be the party of “no” when they control Congress that will be one more nail in their coffin for the 2016 elections.

Remember that the key benefactors of this new program are the people who will turn out to vote in the 2016 election, but who did not show up for the 2014 Congressional race: the young, lower-income students and minorities who more often sign up to attend the cheaper community colleges. If the Republicans refuse to act, they will be buried in 2016. The president’s college tuition initiative is a challenge to the Republicans: “fish or cut bait.”