President Barack Obama has announced a new effort in his higher education reform campaign to make community college free for prospective students.

According to the Associated Press, the Obama Administration's announcement came Thursday as the President was setting out to Tennessee to publicly discuss the plan. Officials from the White House and Education Department discussed the plan's broad strokes on a conference call Thursday night.

Obama recorded a brief video from the Air Force One aircraft and posted it to the White House Facebook page Thursday. In the video, he said he was heading to Tennessee, where he will formally introduce the plan at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville.

Post by The White House.

"In addition, today the President will propose a new American Technical Training Fund to expand innovative, high-quality technical training programs similar to Tennessee Tech Centers that meet employer needs and help prepare more Americans for better paying jobs," the White House said in a press release Friday. "These proposals build on a number of historic investments the President has made in college affordability and quality since taking office, including a $1,000 increase in the maximum Pell Grant award to help working and middle class families, the creation of the $2,500 American Opportunity Tax Credit, reforming student loans to eliminate subsidies to banks to invest in making college more affordable and keeping student debt manageable, and making available over $2 billion in grants to connect community colleges with employers to develop programs that are designed to get hard-working students good jobs."

The AP noted that the Republican controlled Congress could spell trouble for any legislature tied to this proposal.

"With no details or information on the cost, this seems more like a talking point than a plan," Cory Fritz, press secretary for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), told the AP.

While the details of the plan are yet to be revealed, the President said he would ultimately like two years of community college to be publicly funded for qualifying students. The Administration indicated the plan was inspired by existing ones in Tenn. and elsewhere in the U.S.