MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee’s new plan to allow older adults without a college degree or certificate to attend community college free of charge will serve as a model as more states consider similar policies, experts and school administrators said Friday.
The state General Assembly passed the bill pushed by Gov. Bill Haslam, who is expected to sign it into law. The tuition program is an extension of Haslam’s Tennessee Promise program that makes all new high school graduates eligible for free tuition at the state’s community colleges and technical schools.
The initiative is part of Haslam’s “Drive to 55” campaign to boost the percentage of Tennesseans with higher education degrees or certificates from the current 38 percent to 55 percent by 2025.
Experts predict states will study Tennessee’s plan and its progress and consider passing similar laws.
“This is sort of like a cold — everybody is catching it,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. “This is being talked about all over the place.”
Carnevale said the free tuition plan is part of the long evolution of the idea that people should have a high school education plus at least a two-year community college degree to be able to find a good job. In the past, jobs that could be secured by those with only a high school education, such as farming and mining, were more prevalent, he said.
Now, the trend has turned to other modes of employment, such as hospitality, computer technicians, and nursing, hospital and health care jobs, that require education beyond high school, Carnevale said.
