The national “college promise” movement took another step forward last week when Rhode Island announced that it would make two years of community college free for state residents. Rhode Island joins New York, Oregon and Tennessee as the fourth state in the nation to create a statewide promise program. 
Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo signed Rhode Island Promise into law last week.
Statewide college promise campaigns have been building momentum since Tennessee saw success in creating a free tuition program in 2015, dubbed Tennessee Promise. The movement began at the local level, however, and states and municipalities continue to step forward to create new programs aimed at helping more students pursue an affordable degree.
Although some promise programs include funding for four-year schools, community colleges are the cornerstone of many promise programs, given their affordability and wide reach.
“Nationally, almost half of students go to a community college for their education,” said Dr. Martha Kanter. “They either get a start on their four-year degree, or workforce training, because they want to get a certificate.”
Kanter, former undersecretary of education during the Obama administration, is the executive director of the College Promise Campaign, a national initiative that supports efforts to make the first two years at a community college free across the nation.
Rhode Island is wasting no time in getting the scholarship off the ground. The program kicks off this fall, and the soft deadline to apply is August 25. In its current iteration, Rhode Island Promise is a two-year pilot program, and so will be available only to students who finished high school or completed a GED in spring 2017 and 2018.
Given the curtailed timeframe within which to enroll students, there were initially some concerns that attracting student interest might prove to be a challenge, Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) officials said. The state plans to kick off a public relations campaign to encourage students to apply this week.
