Texas community colleges use new funds to offer free tuition

Texas community colleges know many high schoolers are skeptical of higher education because of the price tag. Some want to change that conversation by using new state dollars to waive tuition for some of their youngest students.

Austin Community College plans to pay eligible students’ tuition before federal and state aid kicks in. Known as a “first-dollar” program, this setup would allow students to use other aid toward expenses like books, child care and housing. The plan is a rare departure from, in which federal and state aid goes to tuition before the institution covers the student’s remaining balance.

In Texas and across the country, young people and their families have become increasingly skeptical of the benefits of college. Negative public perception of higher education costs has mostly centered around four-year, private institutions. Experts say community colleges often get lumped into that conversation, even though they usually have lower tuition rates.

“We do think there’s a lot of that have already given up because they heard that it’s $50,000 or $100,000 to get a degree. And they don’t know that it’s always been a fraction of that at Austin Community College,” said Neil Vickers, the school’s chief financial officer. “But you don’t know what you don't know.”

And high school students enrolling in dual credit classes need the help since they are usually not eligible for financial aid, according to Mark Escamilla, the president of Del Mar College. The school used $2 million of its HB 8 money last year toBut to have lasting positive impacts on the perception of college, higher education experts say colleges need to build on free-tuition programs with more support for newly enrolled students.

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