Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam recently announced a proposal to make community and technical colleges free for all graduating high school seniors in the state.

The program, which the Republican governor called “Tennessee Promise,” would create an endowment from the Tennessee Education Lottery to cover tuition and fees at the state’s community colleges. The proposal would cost the state about $34 million a year.

David Baime, the senior vice president of government relations for the American Association of Community Colleges, applauded the plan.

“We think it’s a very exciting idea,” Baime told FoxNews.com. “The governor’s proposal is designed to make tuition free for any student who graduates high school, enrolls full-time, who does well academically and who stays in school. So there’s little bit of asking something from the student, as well as giving the student the ability to not pay any tuition.”

Of course, there are some who realize “free” is never really “free” when it comes to education.

But some argue the “Tennessee Promise” is far from perfect. The plan calls for reducing Hope scholarships for freshmen and sophomores at Tennessee’s four-year universities to $3,000 from the current level of $4,000. Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen, who was instrumental in developing the state’s Hope Scholarship program, argued the governor’s plan could discourage enrollment from the state’s top universities.

The good news is that this proposal seems to be a sign that representatives are beginning to understand a four-year college program may not be for everyone.

Baime agreed that the Hope Scholarship has achieved many of its goals, but argued the “Tennessee Promise” would make Tennessee citizens better educated.

“We think that an over-emphasis on the baccalaureate degree, as important as that degree can be for many people, is a mistake,” Baime said. “Many of the jobs in our economy these days don’t require a four-year degree. An associate’s degree, a two-year degree, or even, in some cases, a one-year certificate … give people very good jobs.”