A US State That Helps Students Pay For College Has A No-Cost Tuition Program

College isn't cheap, but for the nearly 20 million students enrolled in public and private universities across the country each year, it is a cost they have to find a way to manage. Scholarships, grants, and student loans are great resources to help ease the burden, but one state in particular offers hope to students with a no-cost tuition program that allows them to pursue an education without the astronomical price tag usually associated with it.

Arizona offers an incredible opportunity for prospective students: a no-cost tuition program. But there is a catch. This program is only offered to students who wish to become teachers and promise to remain in Arizona for a designated period of time to teach in Arizona schools. This catch hardly seems a deterrent, though, as the program essentially guarantees you a job once you graduate, and with reports showing that as many as 52% of college grads are working in jobs like fast food and retail rather than their chosen profession, having to commit to a certain period of time before moving to another state hardly seems to be a drawback. The program, which is offered through the Arizona Teachers Academy, provides tuition coverage for students at Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona. It is also available for students at the state's public community colleges — Scottsdale, Rio Salado, Pima Community, and Central Arizona Colleges. To qualify, students need to apply to one of these schools, apply for financial aid through the FAFSA program, and agree to the teaching obligation. That obligation requires recipients to remain in Arizona and teach at an Arizona school for a period of one year for each year they received free tuition through the program. 

While the cost of attending college varies from state to state and from institution to institution, the average price in the United States in 2022 was $14,307, a price that didn't include room and board. This cost was nearly double the average price of tuition from 2000, and doesn't even touch the ceiling of what college costs at some schools. With the price of some institutions hitting troubling heights, Americans are having to turn to assistance programs, like the no-cost tuition assistance for students seeking teaching degrees in Arizona just to afford an education.

Experts advise saving for college early, but that doesn't always equate to students being prepared for the full cost. As prices continue to rise, assistance programs are increasingly important. Getting tuition assistance for college is nothing new, and a large portion of America's students utilize it to help pay for their educations. For the 2019-2020 school year alone nearly three-quarters (72%) of students in the U.S. received tuition assistance, relying on some sort of program to help offset the cost.

Students attending any college have many options for tuition assistance including scholarships, student loans, work-study programs, and federal grants, and many parents help their children along the way by saving from the time they are young with tools like following the one-third rule and setting up 529 savings accounts, which are state-sponsored tax-deferred accounts designed to help save the money for students to pay for college.

But in addition to these options and the program offered through the Arizona Teachers Academy, Arizona also offers the Arizona Promise Program, a special program funded through the Arizona Board of Regents of Arizona State University, Norther Arizona University, and the University of Arizona. This guaranteed scholarship program is designed to support low-income residents of the state who want to improve their lives with higher education by attending the state's public universities. In order to qualify for this program students must meet residency, income, and GPA requirements. To apply for the program, students must apply for FAFSA in their senior year of high school (by the April 1^st deadline), receive a Pell Grant Award, and enroll at one of the state's three public universities.

The program seems to be a success in bringing much-needed education to the state and helping to offset the price of higher education. A 2023 report from the Arizona Board of Regents found that an additional 26,300 bachelor's degrees were needed to adequately support the state's economy, and the state's efforts to meet those demands were paying off with a noticeable increase in college enrollment.