By Laurel White
Programs that guarantee free tuition to some college students led to larger financial aid packages largely backed by the state government, according to a new study led by researchers in the UW–Madison School of Education.
The study, published in The Journal of Higher Education, found so-called “promise programs” in Tennessee and Oregon led to significant increases in total grant aid per student and that the increases were driven almost exclusively by higher state investments. However, funding from colleges and universities declined, according to the analysis. Taylor Odle, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, was the lead author of the study.
Odle says the findings provide important insight that could inform the future success or failure of promise programs — and the students they support.
“If promise programs could increase reliance on state-backed financial aid for students — a potentially precarious source of funding that can be quickly altered by political changes — that could have serious implications for the sustainability of these programs and the student outcomes they support,” he says.
Promise programs have proliferated in recent years. There are 16 states operating at least one program statewide, Odle says. In Tennessee, the program offers free tuition to community and technical colleges across the state for selected, eligible high school students. The Oregon program covers tuition for eligible Oregon high school graduates to attend a state community college.
Odle’s co-authors on the study were Jeremy Wright-Kim, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, and Adalberto Castrejón, a doctoral student in the Department of Educational Policy Studies.
Castrejón says he hopes the findings will help policymakers and institutional leaders better understand how free college programs incentivize or disincentivize investments from stakeholders.
“Providing more funding to students is a good thing,” he says. “States spending more money on higher education is also a good thing. We must pay careful attention to how public policies interact at federal, state, and institutional levels if we are to fully understand their intended or unintended consequences.”
Broadly, Odle’s research uses quantitative methods and data science techniques to study issues concerning the economics of education and education policy with a specific focus on college access and success, including college admissions practices, financial aid, and college advising and coaching. He is also a faculty affiliate in Data Science, the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Institute for Diversity Science, and the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Education Sciences.
This study was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences within the U.S. Department of Education.
Read the full study, “Whose Last Dollar? Estimating the Effects of Promise Programs on Financial Aid Awards,” here.