Posted by Maica Pichler on January 13, 2016 at 8:22 AM
One year ago, on January 9, President Obama joined Republican Governor Bill Haslam in Tennessee to announce the American College Promise that would make the nation’s community colleges tuition free. It was a triumphal moment for our efforts to make college tuition free, coming less than a year after we launched our Campaign for Free College Tuition. Since the President’s announcement, we have continued to promote the idea of free college tuition in forums across the country, often with the support and presence of Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell.
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on January 06, 2016 at 8:39 AM
Watch:
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on December 18, 2015 at 10:55 AM
Just six months after the launch of the Campaign for Free College Tuition (CFCT), President Barack Obama announced on January 9, 2015 his America’s College Promise proposal to make public community colleges tuition-fee in Knoxville, Tennessee with the state’s Republican Governor, Bill Haslam. At the time, we stated, “President Obama has sent a powerful signal in choosing to announce his proposal in Knoxville, with Governor Bill Haslam...Thanks to his leadership [with the Tennessee Promise] and the President’s, the once seemingly unattainable idea of tuition-free college is gaining broad bipartisan support.”
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on October 30, 2015 at 9:53 AM
The Kalamazoo Promise turns 10 this year, and what a decade it has been!
In November of 2005, the Kalamazoo Promise was first announced. An anonymous group of donors pledged to cover the cost of tuition and fees at any one of Michigan’s 44 public colleges and universities for students graduating from the Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) district. The goal of the Kalamazoo Promise was to incentivize student enrollment in local K-12 schools from an early age, increase college success for all students, and develop a more skilled local workforce.
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on October 19, 2015 at 7:35 AM
Free college tuition was not even a topic in the 2012 Presidential campaign. My how times have changed for the better.
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on October 01, 2015 at 8:07 AM
Ever since President Obama announced Americas College Promise, his plan to make community colleges tuition free, the debate and conversation about making colleges free has been building with many productive ideas coming forward. This month, the San Diego Community College District may have become the first community college district in the country to approve an endorsement resolution supporting these efforts to make a community college education more affordable. That is just one step of many that we need to take down the road to a future where a college education is expected, accessible and affordable for all young people in our country.
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on September 21, 2015 at 11:00 AM
Many people are rightly focused on doing something about the scourge of student debt that is impacting the ability of an entire generation to get on with their lives. We at the Campaign for Free College Tuition commend those efforts, even as we focus on finding a permanent solution to the problem so no future generation ever has to be burdened by debt.
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on September 17, 2015 at 7:00 AM
Join us in saying Congratulations to Say Yes Education on their newest partner community, Guilford County (NC)! With this exciting announcement, Say Yes to Education has successfully launched three community-wide Chapters by bringing together diverse groups of corporate, non-profit, and philanthropic organizations in their respective communities. Guilford County joins as the biggest partner yet with a 72,000 student school-system, bigger than that of San Francisco or Boston.
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on August 19, 2015 at 11:06 AM
Our cause is gaining momentum: the free college tuition movement has taken the media by storm!
Just this past week Hilary Clinton unveiled her much anticipated plan for reforming how we pay for college.[1] A Democratic front runner, Clinton’s proposal uses Federal incentives to get states to reinvest into higher education. And Bernie Sanders has been able to keep a constant presence in the media, always touting free college education as one of his central platforms.
Read more
Posted by Maica Pichler on August 12, 2015 at 7:54 AM
Richard Reeves, senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute, recently took time out of his studies on economic mobility to pen an editorial lambasting the Kalamazoo Promise because “free college doesn’t fix everything.” His commentary was so wrong and uninformed that Bob Jorth, Executive Director of the Kalamazoo Promise felt compelled to respond. His response unfortunately didn’t get the same coverage, but it was so well done that we felt all of our followers who might have been equally outraged by the Reeves hit piece should have a chance to read it in full. All we can say is, Bob, thanks for putting the record straight and Mr. Reeves in his place.
Read more
