How Are The More Than 400 College Promise Programs Helping Students?

There are now free college programs in all 50 states, 425 of them, to be exact. That is what a recent report from College Promise, an organization that works to make college as accessible and affordable as high school education, has found. The report highlights massive growth in free college programs. When the organization started tracking them in 2016, there were only 53 around the country.

As students and their families are increasingly and understandably worried about the high price of college, promise programs are one way of making college more affordable, lowering student debt burdens, and encouraging students who think they cannot afford college to enroll.

What Are Promise Programs?

Promise programs nationwide range from state-level programs like New Mexico’s excellent program to local place-based programs like Kalamazoo Promise. State and local promise programs have continued to gain popularity even as attempts by the Biden administration to create a federal free college program have failed to gain traction. Free community college was part of the President’s agenda that was eventually cut from the Build Back Better legislation.

Promise programs vary significantly in design and eligibility criteria. The New Mexico and Kalamazoo programs are what are known as first-dollar. Students who receive support to pay their tuition and fees can stack any other financial aid, such as federal Pell Grants, on top of promise funds and can use excess money to pay for books, housing, and other living expenses. This is in contrast to last-dollar programs, like New York’s Excelsior Scholarship, that only helps students if their other financial aid fails to cover their tuition and fees.

What Other Supports Do Students Need?

In addition to bringing attention to the significant growth of free college programs, the report presents findings on a multi-year effort to define the different groups of students that free college programs serve and to help provide guidance on the varying types of support different students need to be successful. The report identifies ten distinct types of students served by Promise programs, including the traditional 18-22 year-olds, older students, veterans, and parenting students.

“College Promise programs are a proven means of helping students access, persist in, and graduate from higher education. But because we know students aren’t a monolith, we created a way to set up these design teams to help us understand – and better address – the needs of those specific populations,” said Martha Kanter, CEO of College Promise, in a press release.

In addition to identifying various student types that Promise programs can support, the report highlights the barriers many students face to accessing and completing a college credential. These include issues like limited financial aid, lack of transportation, and for parenting students, limited affordable childcare options that allow them to focus on studying.

Promise programs cannot fix these challenges alone, but they help make college more accessible. By combining free college programs with other supports recommended in the report, such as improved financial aid provision, on-campus childcare, and support for student basic needs like food and housing, promise programs offer a lifeline to students struggling to figure out how to pay for college.

How Can You Find A Promise Program Near You?

With so many promise programs now up and running, it can be tricky for students to figure out what they are eligible for. To help students find programs they might qualify for, College Promise has created a search tool that students can use to comb through different promise programs.

The goal of promise programs is not just about the price of college. That is important, but the message of free college is just as valuable. Telling potential students that if they get in, they will not have to pay tuition is powerful when trust in higher education is on the rocks. Changing the narrative that college is not worth the price is vital because research shows that higher education is one of the best paths to economic security.

Promise programs are also about more than traditional four-year degrees. Their goal is to help everyone have some form of education beyond high school. Around two-thirds of all jobs now require some form of post-high school education. That percentage is only expected to grow, so encouraging more people to attend or go back to college is a vital part of ensuring individual and national economic success.

Ideally, free college will be back on the national agenda to create a true federal-state partnership that could provide free college to all students, not just those lucky enough to live somewhere with a program.