The movement to provide free community college is growing. Last month Michigan and Massachusetts began new programs, and 30 states now have some form of free community college in place.
According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, good things happen when free college is available.
At a time when community college enrollment had decreased nationwide, especially after the pandemic, free community college is significantly increasing enrollment: It’s up 4.4 percent from 2022 levels. That’s not yet back to what it was pre-pandemic, but it’s still a significant improvement.
It also helps individual students, their communities, and quite possibly generations to come.
“The increased interest in attending will reverberate for a generation of students, who are just now seeing that [college] is possible and an opportunity,” said Kirk Kramer, president of St. Clair County Community College, in Michigan. “The increased conversation about college in the community, the appreciation, and the presence of the college and strengthening that conversation … it’s very rewarding for our college.”
This is consistent across the nation: When you make community colleges free, more people enroll and more people get better outcomes.
But while “free community college” is a good thing, “free” doesn’t always mean the same thing from state to state, or even college to college.
Every State Community College System Is Different
A decade ago, Tennessee became the first state to fully cover community college tuition, first for high-school graduates, then for almost any adult resident. But Michigan only covers up to $4,800 in tuition a year for recent high school graduates. Free … but only up to a point.
Most states, according to the Chronicle, take a “last-dollar” approach, which only provides reimbursement after students’ federal aid has been used up. That means students still have to go through the federal aid system, which is increasingly a barrier.
While some states also provide support for expenses that come with college like books, most states do not – which still puts college out of reach for people who can’t afford textbooks and fees.
Then there are approaches like Calbright College, which is completely free to all adult Californians with a high school diploma or equivalent, and which charges nothing for textbooks, or fees. Free really means free.
But free is only part of the equation when it comes to making community college accessible to everyone.
Free Is Good: Flexible Is Better
The Chronicle quotes Thomas Brock, director of the Community College Research Center, as saying that the increase in community college enrollment is less attributable to free tuition and “mostly” the result of “how community colleges have adapted over the last few years by offering more flexibility for students.”
Free tuition helps, but making college fit within students’ lives is much more important.
This is what Calbright has found too, with nearly 9 in 10 of Calbright’s students saying that it’s Calbright’s online Competency-Based Education model, which allows students to attend classes on their own schedules and complete their degrees at the right pace for them, that makes enrolling possible. They appreciate free tuition, but they’re attending because Calbright is career-focused and fits within their lives.
But the fact that a majority of states now have free tuition of some kind is a great sign; a sign that most of the country is taking accessibility seriously in higher education, and working to make it possible. Calbright is on the leading edge, but we all need to be in it together.
