Legislative policies may impact states
offering free tuition for two-year institutions. Research that looked at 20
existing College Promise programs in 18 states found that some of their requirements could make it harder for some students to participate.
“As debates around Promise programs continue,
state legislators serious about spurring enrollment, lowering debt, and
addressing inequities in our higher-education system should ensure that
proposed Promise programs provide both a clear message and a clear benefit to
those who need it most,” wrote Jen Mishory, a senior fellow at the Century
Foundation, in The Future of Statewide College Promise Programs: A State Guideto Free College.
The report noted that half the programs studied
required students to attend school full time, eliminating part-time students
who are more likely to be on their own financially and in need of the
additional help to attend. Merit-based requirements and limitations on the
degrees or certificates covered by the free-tuition programs can also reduce
the number of eligible students.
Using federal Pell Grant dollars or other
grants to cover the cost of tuition before the Promise program kicks in is
another roadblock for students. The report noted that if Promise dollars went
to tuition, lower-income students would then be able to use the grant money on
some of the other costs of higher education, such as housing transportation,
and books.
“At least in their initial stages, few states
have recharged their higher-education investments enough to make significant
progress toward a more universal benefit—and each state faces their own unique
hurdles to getting there, some more challenging than others,” Mishory wrote.
“Without that investment, as states launch programs with rationing policies to
contain program costs, the choices they make will have very different impacts
on who benefits, how well it measures up against the goals of spurring
enrollment and lowering debt, and how their program impacts the progress their
state makes in closing gaps in enrollment and attainment rates by race and income.”
