Free college programs continue to expand — this time advancing at the state level

In 2021, Vermont launched a new free college program—the 802 Opportunity Grant. The program provides free tuition at the Community College of Vermont (CCV) for students from families earning less than $50,000 per year.

In the program's first year, 2,000 students used the scholarship to pay for tuition, and that number grew by 10% the following year. Most of these students are the first in their families to attend college.

CCV President Joyce Judy said that, in other words, the program has been successful. She noted that Vermont has a high high school graduation rate but a low college enrollment rate, and the high cost of community college tuition did not improve this situation—CCV charges in-state students $280 per credit.

Lawmakers also seem to think the initiative is going well. Judy said that last year they voted to expand scholarship eligibility, which now covers families earning up to $75,000, or half of Vermont's population.

"Many businesses in Vermont are in urgent need of highly skilled workers, and we want to ensure that Vermonters can access these job opportunities," Judy said. "Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people have recognized that to help all Vermonters reach their full potential, we must find ways to make education affordable."

This trend is spreading across the nation. A year ago, after President Joe Biden's national free community college plan stalled, some of the momentum behind the ideashifted to the state level. Now, more states are launching their own programs, and those launched last year are considering expansions.

A movement with momentum

TakeMichigan's Reconnect programas an example. Established by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2021, the program provides free community college tuition to adults aged 25 and older who do not have a college degree. Now, Whitmer says she wants to lower the eligibility age to 21.

"It has opened doors of opportunity for many working-age adults, and we are even more excited about the possibilities for expansion," said Brandy Johnson, president of the Michigan Community College Association. "We are seeing more adult students enrolling in our institutions, and we believe the message of a 'tuition-free pathway' helps adults realize these programs are for them."

Connecticut already has a free college program called the Pledge to Advance Connecticut (PACT), which applies to first-time community college students enrolled in at least six credits. But the president of the state's Board of Regents for Higher Educationhas proposed expanding itto all community college students.

In states that have not yet implemented comprehensive free college programs, governors have shown interest. Massachusetts' new governor, Maura Healey, proposed a MassReconnect plan during her campaign, aiming to model it after community college adult programs in Michigan and Tennessee. Other state lawmakershave also proposed their own free program plans。

"We are having extensive discussions about the goals of free community college in Massachusetts and what is needed to achieve them, to ensure sustainability for our institutions and students," said Sarah Yunits, deputy executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges.

In Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker, in a recent State of the State address,called for free college tuition for some families, but has not yet proposed a formal plan.

Federal officials have highlighted the expansion and growth of state-level free college programs. Nasser Paydar, Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, at a recent meetingurged states to advance tuition-free community college。

The power of the word "free"

Despite growth in recent years, free college programs have existed in some form in education for a while, starting with merit-based programs in the 1990s, said Michelle Miller-Adams, senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

Local free college programs at the city level emerged in the mid-2000s, and the first state-level program followed in 2014 in Tennessee.

"Whenever federal leadership recedes, action on tuition-free college at the state and local levels continues, and this has been the case for nearly 20 years," Miller-Adams said. "The spotlight shifts."

Although states may move in tandem, the reasons different state governments give for promoting free college often vary. The rhetoric may center on affordability and freedom from debt—such as Senator Bernie Sanders'highly publicized proposal—but it may also focus on college access equity or workforce development, Miller-Adams said.

Although free community college generally enjoys bipartisan support, the reasons lawmakers support proposals can vary by state, said Ryan Morgan, CEO of the advocacy organization Campaign for Free College Tuition. For example, some Southern states need skilled workers to fill manufacturing jobs, so they shift the focus to workforce development.

Lawmakers may be encouraged by some of the research behind free college programs. Doug Harris, chair of the economics department at Tulane University,has studied free college. Harris said his research shows that most such programs pass cost-benefit analyses.

Although these programs have also generally increased college enrollment rates, the specifics can vary by context, Harris said. In some cases, free programs targeting two-year colleges may shift enrollment away from four-year institutions.

Miller-Adams noted that the Tennessee Promise program, launched in 2014, boosted enrollment rates only in the short term.

More recently, New Mexico last year launched the most expansive free college program in the nation, covering both community colleges and state four-year universities. Enrollment at the state's public universities last fallgrew by 4%。

In Maine, the state provides free tuition for community college students affected by the pandemic during high school. Andrew Morong, associate dean of enrollment management at Central Maine Community College, said enrollment has grown by more than 12% since fall 2021, although the college has also taken other measures to boost student numbers, such as adding new sports teams and transfer agreements.

"The word 'free' is incredibly powerful," Morong said.

"Many students who ultimately qualified for Pell Grants and Maine State Grants could have attended Central Maine Community College for free anyway, but they just didn't know it at the time," Morong said. "It attracts many people who may not have realized they could attend for free, and it creates a lot of expectations for them."

Except for New Mexico, nearly all state-level programs are "last-dollar" scholarships, meaning they kick in only after federal Pell Grants and other aid are exhausted. Miller-Adams said she would like to see more "first-dollar" programs so that students already eligible for Pell Grants can use federal funds during their studies to cover other needs like educational supplies and housing. She also hopes to see more targeted program designs.

"What I hope to see is design choices that match the goals," she said. "Because these programs are political, they tend to be adjusted politically, and those adjustments are not always good examples of program design."

For example, Maryland's free community college program has a high school GPA requirement of 2.3. Miller-Adams said the choice of that number seems largely arbitrary. New York's program for two-year and four-year colleges includesstrict post-graduation residency requirements。

Some existing programs are labeled as time-limited, such as Maine's, usually because they are tied to one-time federal funds related to the pandemic. But state lawmakers seem inclined to extend or expand these programs. Morong said Maine's program was originally set to end with the high school graduating class of 2023, but the governor's executive budget has proposed extending funding to the classes of 2024 and 2025.

For Ryan of the Campaign for Free College Tuition, the growth of the programs proves they are achieving their goals. He said that nine years ago, there were fewer than five state-level programs; now there are 31.

"That fact tells me it's working," Ryan said.