Promise Scholarship Programs and Local Prosperity

Abstract

We argue that place-based college scholarships, if designed intentionally and leveraged effectively, can foster local economic development. Since the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise in 2005, a growing number of communities have applied the place-based approach to investments in human capital through the creation of college scholarship programs. Reviewing the existing literature on educational and economic outcomes associated with Promise programs reveals that they can expand students' postsecondary aspirations, improve a school district's college-going culture, and increase college enrollment and degree attainment while promoting inmigration of residents and positive growth in housing prices. Therefore, these programs can serve a broader communal interest, benefiting both individuals (e.g., through higher earnings) and their localities. We conclude this report by outlining observations for city leaders and local policymakers that can be distilled into lessons concerning the civic engagement and economic vitality of a community, the attainment of equity in student outcomes, and the scale and sustainability of a program's design. We hope the evidence presented in this report will aid in the design, adoption, and scaling of programs that harness community assets and respond to community needs.

Spending More or Spending Less? Institutional Expenditures and Staffing in the Free-College Era

“…As a result, the policy has spread across the nation, with many political figures citing “free college” as a critical platform component (Perna & Leigh, 2018). The growing popularity of promise programs is attributable, in part, to the perception that they serve as an investment in human capital, producing benefits for both students and their local economies (LeGower & Walsh, 2017; Miller-Adams & Smith, 2018). On the student front, a diverse body of research has documented the impact of promise programs on students’ enrollment, persistence, and completion in higher education (Swanson et al, 2020).…”

The Impact of Comprehensive Community Initiatives on Population‐Level Child, Youth, and Family Outcomes: A Systematic Review

“…All of the six initiatives studied in the articles included in the current review focused on reducing the incidence or prevalence of drug, alcohol, and other substance use among youth. Given that, in recent history, CCIs have often been implemented to change outcomes outside the traditional focus of prevention science (e.g., educational outcomes [Sohn, Rubenstein, Murchie, & Bifulco, 2016] and economic outcomes [Miller-Adams & Smith, 2018]), we find the lack of rigorous impact studies of CCIs to be a persistent challenge to understanding how they might be most effectively implemented in the real world.…”