Free Community College: An approach to increase adult student success in postsecondary education

With jobs in the U.S. increasingly requiring postsecondary credentials and degrees, more than half of the states have identified goals to increase postsecondary completion and attainment rates for students. While these goals can help states get closer to meeting workforce needs, research shows that focusing efforts strictly on traditionally-aged students will not allow states to meet their attainment goals. In order to increase postsecondary enrollment, some states have adopted free community college policies, but these policies often exclude eligibility of adult students.

This new policy report from Education Commission of the States, Free Community College: An approach to increase adult student succe..., discusses the growing interest in free community college policies across state legislatures, addresses the limited potential of current policies to help states reach their completion and attainment goals and offers a new, inclusive framework for including adult students in free community college policies.

“Increasing postsecondary enrollment of adult students in the 25 to 64-year-old age group is a key step in helping not only individual states meet their completion and attainment goals, but also for the U.S. to create the educated workforce required for the 21st century economy,” said Sarah Pingel, a policy analyst at Education Commission of the States. “This report offers a new policy framework that focuses on the inclusion of adult students for states that are considering offering free community college or redesigning existing policies.”

Some key takeaways from this report:

• To date, 23 states have considered 47 pieces of legislation related to free college.
   
• Zero states will realistically reach attainment imperatives without the participation of adult students in higher education.
   
• The majority of state proposals related to free college focus only on traditionally-aged students - leaving out adults.

For questions, contact Education Commission of the States Communications Director Amy Skinner at askinner@ecs.org or (303) 299.3609.