PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Carruthers, Celeste K.
AU  - Fox, William F.
AU  - Jepsen, Christopher
TI  - What Knox Achieved
AID  - 10.3368/jhr.1220-11359R2
DP  - 2025 Nov 01
TA  - Journal of Human Resources
PG  - 2071--2104
VI  - 60
IP  - 6
4099  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/60/6/2071.short
4100  - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/60/6/2071.full
AB  - 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 United States. 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.