States are using free-tuition programs to bolster workforce

WASHINGTON – To churn out more workers with marketable skills, an increasing number of states are offering residents free tuition to community colleges and technical schools.

The move also is a reaction to fast-rising tuition costs — increases that stem, in part, from states reducing their financial support of public colleges and universities.

Morley Winograd, president of the Campaign for Free College Tuition, a Seattle-based nonprofit, described the movement as "the fastest-growing policy idea in the country" — one with bipartisan support.

"Everybody's got cheap dirt — but do you have skilled workers?" Winograd said. "That's the question states face as they recruit new industry."

But the free tuition push hasn't produced an economic bonanza for any of the pioneering cities — at least not yet — and some states have struggled to come up with the money to keep their end of the bargain.

The free tuition trend began in 2005 in Kalamazoo, Mich., which launched a privately funded effort to combat its economic decline. The movement has quickly spread: Today roughly 200 localities offer young residents free tuition to local community colleges and technical schools.

In the past two years, 12 states have enacted legislation to join them. The rush to offer free tuition began with Tennessee in 2015, but other states quickly followed. Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island have started programs, and Nevada plans to launch one this year. California and Montana enacted legislation to create programs but have yet to appropriate funds.

Free tuition plans typically promise students a free ride if they meet certain requirements, such as maintaining a certain GPA. Most plans only pay for tuition, so students must cover fees and books.

Most of the programs are "last dollar," which means a student must obtain and use federal aid, such as Pell Grants or other scholarships, before the program kicks in to cover the rest.

Some states limit their programs to students in selected fields. Arkansas only awards grants to students focusing on science, technology, engineering, math and other subjects employers most value. This year, Work Ready Kentucky is limiting aid to students studying health care, transportation and logistics, advanced manufacturing, construction, business services and information technology.

"Clearly we're seeing a lot of momentum right now," said Dustin Weeden, senior policy analyst with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, an advocacy group based in Boulder, Colo.

Tennessee's stated goal is to make sure that 55 percent of Tennesseans have a college degree or certificate by 2025. The state started by offering free tuition for two years of community college or technical school to every recent high school graduate in the state. The state in 2016 revised the program to allow a greater number of older adults to attend any of the 27 Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology for free, starting this coming fall.

Tuition at four-year public colleges has risen 35 percent since the 2008 school year, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank based in Washington, D.C. In Tennessee, per-student state funding at public colleges and universities declined 18 percent from 2008 to 2016, and the average annual tuition at public colleges and universities rose by more than $3,000 during that period.

Since Tennessee launched its free tuition program, applications and enrollment at the state's community colleges have soared. More than 33,000 Tennesseans have attended college free. Higher education is now a part of Tennessee's sales pitch to potential employers, said Mike Krause, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

"I can absolutely tell you it figures in our conversations," he said. Although he could not point to a specific employer won by free college, Krause said: "There's a buzz now about education that wasn't there before."

But in Kalamazoo, a dozen years of free tuition have yielded mixed results.

Kalamazoo Promise, which is funded by anonymous donors, covers four years of tuition at any public college or university in Michigan or at 15 private colleges in the state. Students who attend Kalamazoo schools every year from kindergarten through 12th grade receive all tuition and fees paid; those who attend grades nine through 12 get 65 percent of their costs paid.

"We had the Great Recession, which makes it hard to determine what the effect of Kalamazoo Promise on the economy has been," Ready said.

Ready believes that free tuition is "necessary but not sufficient" to create economic impact. Between 2005 and 2014, the city's public school enrollment grew by almost 25 percent (though the number of low-income kids receiving free lunches also increased). Kalamazoo now has more college graduates, and the erosion in its population has stopped.