What Knox Achieved: Estimated Effects of Tuition-free Community College on Attainment and Earnings

We examine the effect of a last-dollar “free community college” program on college credit accumulation, college completion, and medium-term labor-market outcomes. Knox Achieves pledged tuition-free community college to any Knox County, Tennessee high school graduate and served as the model for the statewide Tennessee Promise program as well as local and state initiatives across the U.S. We find that Knox Achieves eligibility led to a 24 percent higher likelihood of attaining an associate’s degree within nine years of high school, alongside positive but insignificant changes in the likelihood of attaining a bachelor’s degree, and negative but insignificant changes in in-state earnings.