Mississippi’s community colleges received some fantastic news recently — the fourth highest degree completion rate in the country.

Many of those graduates, no doubt, receive an amazingly high level of satisfaction when they finish, particularly those who have worked their way through school.

But a recent federal proposal stands to cheapen their efforts a bit, by simply giving away what so many people have struggled hard to achieve for years.

The White House’s proposal would make community college tuition free, provided students attend half of a full load of courses and maintain a 2.5 grade point average.

That chicken-in-every-pot plan sounds good to some, but we tend to be more pragmatic.

Ultimately, someone must pay for the “chicken” and the pot in which it sits and the energy to cook it.

That someone is each and every American.

Our national debt continues to ascend into the heavens, yet The White House suggests the government spend another $60 billion on a new plan that at its very core cuts through the heart of what the American dream is about — working your way to accomplish something meaningful, something you earned.

Millions of community college students across the country exist and many of them work one or more jobs as they work their ways through college. That system has worked for decades and does not require federal intervention.

Making community colleges become another entitlement would seem to be counter to foundations of hard work on which America has been built.

Don’t get us wrong. We love community colleges and believe they offer a great value to our country. But we don’t think giving away a college education does our country — or its citizens — much good.