Public Good, Private Money
Momentum for passing a national free community college program may have slowed, but businesses and private donors are picking up the slack. While state movements to increase access to college in several localities, such as in Tennessee, have generated headlines across the country, many locally based “promise” scholarship programs are funded by private dollars and donations. At the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Michelle Miller-Adams estimates there are about 80 local, place-based scholarship or promise-type programs across the country.