Bright students use free tuition to fuel their futures

Just after 6 p.m. on a brisk mid-October evening, the hum of conversation filled a physics lab at South Seattle College. Mateo Moreno-McQuarrie leaned over a small whiteboard, debating how to draw an accelerating car. “It’s gonna be a box on wheels,” he said, grinning to the classmate seated next to him. It had been a long day — his first class started at 8 a.m. — but the 19-year-old didn’t seem to mind. For him, the late nights are part of a larger plan to one day work on air- and water-quality issues. He’s lived along the Duwamish River his whole life, where pollution and industry run side by side with family homes. By next fall, the Chief Sealth International High School graduate hopes to transfer to the University of Washington to study chemistry.

The Seattle Promise Program didn’t change that goal, but it made the route there much clearer. The city’s tuition-free college program for graduates of Seattle Public Schools allowed him to start close to home, save money and build confidence before transferring to a four-year university. Next month, Seattle voters will decide whether that promise to homegrown Seattleites continues. The city is asking to renew its Families, Education, Preschool and Promise (FEPP) levy, with roughly $82 million earmarked over six years for Seattle Promise, almost doubling the current investment. The funding would maintain tuition-free access to the city’s three community colleges and expand supports that have become central to the program’s success. The program, which launched in 2018, takes direct aim at the systemic barriers preventing people from attending college: cost and confusion. Students get two years or 90 credits totally free, whichever comes first. Eligible students also receive flexible aid to cover housing, transportation or book expenses. And, starting in high school, they have free and frequent access to advisers and mentors who help them figure out their path to a degree.

Seattle Promise started small but exploded in size. Only a handful of schools participated in its first year, enrolling about 230 students. Today, it reaches 22 schools and more than 1,400 students, a more than fivefold increase. Promise scholars now represent roughly 1 out of every 10 students across the Seattle Colleges. “This program is going to be the one producing our next doctors, lawyers, electricians, mayors,” said Dwane Chappelle, director of the city’s Department of Education and Early Learning, which manages the FEPP levy programs. And it may produce far more of those future professionals than officials originally anticipated. “Our initial projection in 2018 was that it would grow to 870 students,” Chappelle said. Additional dollars brought through the renewed levy would help support the size of the program.

Most Promise students enroll with hopes of transferring to a four-year university. If UW is their choice, they have decent chances of getting in — more than 80% of those who go through the program's Path to UW track are admitted, compared with about 50% of Washington residents.

About 15% of Promise students go on to choose professional-technical programs like automotive, welding, culinary arts or fire science. Some of those technical and skilled trade programs require more than 90 credits, and often extend beyond the Promise window. Chappelle said the city hopes to fix that through the Path to Trades initiative, which would support students through credential completion and into employment. Some of the additional money requested in the levy will go to fund that initiative. While it’s been easy to get students in the door, there have been some predictable hurdles to keeping them inside. Only about a third of students graduate in three years, which mirrors the national trend. The pandemic made it especially difficult to retain students in Seattle, as it did nationwide.

Some students were coming in academically unprepared due to remote learning, experiencing mental health crises or facing pressure to go straight into the workforce, according to a 2023 evaluation. Interventions to keep students enrolled have yielded mixed outcomes, according to a 2024 evaluation. Offering a third year of support or part-time status was associated with higher completion rates. But allowing students to defer for a quarter, or reenroll after losing eligibility, showed no change. Putting more attention on English learner students and those with the most financial need could also help with retention, said Kendy Trinh, a former Promise retention specialist. Some students are coming in without stable housing, or miss important eligibility deadlines because of life circumstances.

“Signing up for college is like signing up for a credit card,” Trinh said, stressing that it’s important students comprehend the fine print in terms they understand. Academic performance is the most common cause for students to lose eligibility, said Melody McMillan, senior executive director for Seattle Promise at Seattle Colleges. While there is no firm cutoff, students are expected to maintain at least a 2.0 GPA and attend class regularly.

“It was definitely a reality check,” said Moreno-McQuarrie, of the transition to college coursework. “In college, it’s definitely more about you teaching yourself.”

Last year, he said he leaned on support at the college — advising, tutoring and office hours — to get through a particularly tough biology class. Promise staff helped him reorient his focus toward chemistry coursework. The program tries to reiterate as much as possible what resources are available. When students go through the orientation in the Promise program, staff physically walk students to the tutoring centers on campus, and amplify the resources available.

Some students also don’t know they can ask Promise staff for a chance to improve their GPA if they fall below the threshold, said Moreno-McQuarrie, who works for the Promise program at the South Seattle office. Even if a student doesn’t end up graduating, there is still merit to them trying, said McMillan. They could find their way back one day.

“The program filled a gap for students who didn’t grow up with the assurance that college was in their future,” she said. “It wasn’t something that was talked about at dinner.”

McMillan and city officials feel confident that graduation rates will rise over the coming years. With the immediate impact of the pandemic in the rearview, they say the lessons of the first six years will help them double down on student support. Each Promise scholar gets access to personalized advising starting in high school through completion of their degree, and help completing FAFSA or WASFA forms. Data from evaluations shows that students who meet regularly with Promise and college staff are more likely to persist.

The presence of program staff in Seattle Public Schools has also made a difference. Ray Armstrong, who graduated a valedictorian from Alan T. Sugiyama High School earlier this year, said he probably would’ve gone straight into the workforce or an “under-the-table job” if he hadn’t heard about the program from a Promise worker and his teacher during his sophomore year. Through Promise he’s getting to work toward his dream — opening an automotive shop with a restaurant attached in Osaka, Japan. He’s enrolled in South Seattle College’s culinary arts program, where he’s learning knife skills and the fundamentals of cooking. When he’s finished, he wants to transfer his credits to a culinary institute in Japan.

“It has been amazing,” said Armstrong of his time in the college so far. He’s been able to use some of his skills to land a job at a ramen restaurant in Fremont.

The program’s reach has grown beyond city borders. Other community-college districts and the Washington Student Achievement Council have studied Seattle Promise as a model for integrating financial support with advising and early outreach. Without renewed funding through the FEPP levy, the tuition guarantee, scholarships and retention staff would wind down once current resources run out.

“What’s at stake,” Chappelle said, “is our commitment to saying every kid has a future after high school. That shouldn’t depend on their ZIP code or bank account.”

For Moreno-McQuarrie, that promise feels personal. Outside of school, he volunteers with the Duwamish River Community Coalition, helping the public understand how pollution moves through local waterways. He would love to continue working on similar issues as a college graduate. “I really do want to stick around Seattle,” he said.