Why ‘free college’ programs don’t always deliver on promise

By DREW LINDSAY of The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Chronicle of Philanthropy

Pete Kadens, who made the bulk of his fortune as CEO of a billion-dollar cannabis operation, may be chasing a pipe dream. He needs to secure $1 billion in Chicago alone for 10 years of scholarships for public-school graduates. Fundraising has been robust, he says, but he’s also netted responses from those who politely hint that he’s perhaps smoking too much of his old company’s product. Such is the conundrum facing college-promise programs popping up nationwide. Theirs is an appealingly simple idea: If you knock down financial barriers to college, more students will go — a goal made more urgent as the pandemic has depressed college-going rates.