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() — Nariah Romero-Rudy, dreamed of going into the medical field after watching her younger sister spend years fighting leukemia as a child. Yet studying at her dream school — the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where a degree can cost more than $160,000 — seemed out of reach for her and her family.
But as an Illinois resident, Romero-Rudy was eligible for a program called Illinois Commitment that offered free tuition at UIUC for in-state students whose parents make less than $67,100.
“I always knew I wanted to study biology at (UIUC); what I didn’t know was how,” she said in a video about the university’s program. “Without Illinois Commitment, I don’t know that I would’ve been able to come to (UIUC) as easily, or if at all.”
Today Romero-Rudy is a senior, and one of a small but growing number of students nationwide who are increasingly being offered free college not strictly on academic merit or athletic ability — but based on where they grew up.
The states, towns and colleges making these moves say it comes in response to concerns about the growth of student debt.
“I see the proliferation and all the diffusion of these local, community-based ‘promise programs’ as an indictment that our federal and state student aid programs are insufficient,” said Jennifer Delaney, a professor and researcher on higher education and economics at UIUC.
So-called “college promise” (although there are many variations), some researchers estimate hundreds of thousands of students have been impacted by programs across dozens of states in recent years.
Available research seems to indicate these programs make students more likely to finish high school, be interested in attending institutions of higher education and spur economic growth on the local level. Yet there are caveats — mostly due to the jumble of local and state initiatives creating wide variations in eligibility, award amount and the types of institution they’re for.
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“The general takeaway is that there is some good evidence to suggest these programs can help on the margins within enrollment, completion, retention rates, but the devil’s in the details,” said Eric Syverson, who co-wrote a report examining hundreds of programs for the nonpartisan nonprofit Education Commission of the States.
Take, for example, Kalamazoo, Michigan, home to one of the most famous and longest-running such programs. Its public schoolchildren get free tuition to any Michigan university. Yet kids in neighboring Battle Creek, a town less than 20 minutes away, don’t have the same opportunity — creating a dividing line of haves and have-nots in essentially the same geographic area.
In Tennessee, students in the entire state have access to funding for two-year technical or community colleges in the state, not four-year colleges. Research, however, shows graduates earn significantly more over their lifetimes than those with two-year degrees.
“They were explicitly trying to … meet labor force market demands by graduating a certain type of student,” Syverson said. “Students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, they’re predominantly and disproportionately underrepresented in four-year institutions. … (These students) may be interested in a four-year degree or credential, but are incentivized by policy to go down the two-year path.”
There remains a lot to be seen with the long-term viability and impact of these programs. Those studying these programs say that while they’re far from perfect, they are the best option for many students from low- and middle-income families.
As the Supreme Court may soon decide whether to block President Joe Biden’s loan forgiveness plan, politicians continue to debate education policy. Many experts are pushing for a broader consideration of tuition-free programs or other solutions at a federal level.
“Forgiveness on the back end doesn’t solve the affordability problem on the front end,” Delaney said. “We don’t want to be at a point where we lose talent just because college is too expensive.”
