In August, Michigan and Massachusetts joined over 30 other states in covering community college tuition, The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. The efforts are part of a growing movement to implement government-funded community college at the state level as federal proposals have been thwarted.
Starting this fall, Michigan is launching the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, which lowers tuition costs at community, private, and public college for most recent high school graduates, covering up to $27,500 over five years. The new initiative also expands the state’s Reconnect program, which in 2021 began covering tuition costs for adults ages 25 and older who had no postsecondary credentials. In 2019, Michigan set a “Sixty by 2030” goal, which aims to have 60% of adult residents with a postsecondary degree by 2030. Although Michigan is not on track to meet its goal, the state has increased the share of adults with postsecondary degrees from 45% in 2019 to a current state attainment rate of 51%, according to the Lumina Foundation.
Last year, Massachusetts implemented a model similar to Michigan’s Reconnect program, which targets older students, and the state is going even further than Michigan to cover community college tuition for any student who has not earned a bachelor’s degree, regardless of age or income, the Chronicle reports. Massachusetts has seen benefits after offering free community college for older students. In the 2023-24 academic year, Massachusetts’s community-college enrollment among students 25 and older without a degree had increased by 45% compared to the previous year.
Both new state initiatives are aimed at boosting community college enrollment, which has decreased nationally since the COVID-19 pandemic but rose slightly (by 4.4%) from Fall 2022 to Fall 2023, according to Columbia University’s Community College Research Center. That small increase was due, in part, to existing free community college efforts, says Thomas Brock, director of the Community College Research Center (CCRC).
Benefits of free community college
There is broad, bipartisan support for free community college, but there are disagreements about how to implement it at a national level and who should pay for it. Efforts by the Obama and Biden administrations to fund free community college at the federal level faced opposition, with critics voicing concerns about government spending. However, before the 1960s, public colleges were almost free to attend until increased enrollment among Baby Boomers coming of age made that difficult to maintain, according to the Chronicle.
In 2015, Tennessee became the first state to reverse that trend by covering community college tuition and fees for high school graduates. Tennessee’s efforts have paid off, experts from the CCRC say. Due in part to free community college, the state has seen “gradual improvements over time, particularly in student outcomes and students staying in college, earning degrees, and completing their longer-term academic goals,” says Brock. Between 2016 and 2022, the share of adults over 25 in Tennessee who had at least a bachelor’s degree rose from 26% to 31%.
Free community college also can benefit students planning to earn a bachelor’s degree, as most community college students (80%) hope to transfer to four-year institutions later on, according to the CCRC. However, just 31% of community-college students who started college in Fall 2016 actually transferred to a four-year institution, and only around half of those students earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. Fixing the transfer process is one of several interventions community college students need to meet their academic goals.
Needing more than tuition-free programs
Experts also say that covering tuition costs alone does not help students pay for food, housing, and other basic needs that support their success. Most states offer “last-dollar” scholarships, which students can use to cover any tuition and fees that remain after federal financial aid has been applied. However, because Pell Grants typically cover community college tuition, Pell Grant recipients can end up ineligible to receive any last-dollar scholarships.
Recognizing that gap, Massachusetts and Michigan also are offering stipends of up to $1,200 for books and other course materials. Some of that support is meant only for Pell-eligible students. Massachusetts’s SUCCESS Fund also helps community colleges provide wraparound support and services, such as peer mentoring, scholarship advising, and field trips to four-year institutions. However, there aren’t enough funds to expand the program in this year’s state budget, says Lane Glenn, president of Northern Essex Community College, a two-year public college in Massachusetts.
“Providing access to insufficient education is not a benefit, so we want to be sure that as the population of students grows, the support for them also grows,” Glenn said. “If enrollment grows a lot this year, we are certainly going to need some more support.”