The promise of free college makes a snappy campaign pledge, as many candidates have discovered. But you might be surprised to learn that thousands of Washington students already have the opportunity to go to college for free — and don’t bother to take it.
In 2017, about 11,000 students who graduated from Washington high schools could have gone to college tuition-free. Because they didn’t fill out a federal financial-aid form, they essentially rejected that offer and left about $50 million in federal financial aid on the table, according to a new state study.
That money could have been used to pay for a technical or two-year degree at a community college, a bachelor’s degree from a four-year college, or even tuition at a few private career colleges. Yet about 46 percent of students who likely qualified for one specific state program, the College Bound Scholarship, didn’t fill out the necessary Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) — and thus lost out on that money.