As of November 2014, Redeeming America's Promise is now named the Campaign for Free College Tuition. American Promise scholarships are now known as National Promise scholarships.
If you are in the Washington, DC area, please join us for a June 17th briefing announcing the launch of Redeeming America’s Promise (RAP), a new non-profit organization established to educate parents, students, the higher education community, policy makers and taxpayers about efforts needed to fundamentally reform our nation’s system for financing higher education.
Speakers will include: James Blanchard, former Governor of Michigan, Congressman, Ambassador, and Founder of the Michigan Education Trust; and Morley Winograd, Former Senior Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore and President of Redeeming America’s Promise.
RAP evolved from discussions that started in 2013 among a group of former elected officials and policy experts who wanted to make one more contribution to America’s future in their retirement years. The discussions grew to include academicians, Millennial organization and business leaders who were interested in finding the best way to address the challenges of college access, affordability, and attainability.
At the end of these discussions, RAP founders made a mutual commitment to create a national public policy that eliminates cost as a barrier to attaining such an education for every American who is academically ready and personally determined to earn a post-secondary degree or certificate.
The plan that will be formally unveiled next week is, in part, inspired by promise scholarship programs in Kalamazoo, Michigan (see http://bit.ly/1tYXndW for an Upjohn Institute Working Paper) and El Dorado, Arkansas. Earlier this year, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam (R) took a similarly bold approach to address college access and affordability when successfully establishing a "Tennessee Promise" that uses proceeds from the state’s lottery to provide residents with free tuition at community colleges and colleges of applied technology.
Our nation’s economic success depends on a highly educated and skilled workforce. But with higher education tuition and fees continuing to rise much faster than health care costs, up to 70% in the last five years in some states, and incomes stagnating for lower and middle class Americans, the ability of millions of families to afford the key to economic and social mobility for their children has been greatly diminished. And when students must pay for their education by borrowing huge amounts of money their ability to launch their lives – to buy a house or car, have children, save for their own family’s education – is severely restricted.
We hope that you can join us to learn more about our plan and our bipartisan alliance of supporters. Please RSVP to [email protected].
Tuesday, June 17, 2014 from 10:00 a.m. to 11 a.m. A continental breakfast will be served.
National Press Club
529 14th Street, NW
13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045
Our goal is to make higher education a possibility for every American, without regard to their financial circumstances.
We have a lot to do and not much time to do it, so your support is critical for our campaign to succeed. It’s with your investment that we can fundamentally reform how higher education is financed in this country, opening the doors to a more equitable society.
If you agree with our goal, our plan, and the urgency of the problem, we ask that you give what you can to help us write the next chapter in our nation’s history of continuously expanding access to universal, free education.
