A Promise Kept for Whom? College Access, Success, and the Limits of Race-Neutral Tuition-Free Programs

Abstract

The cost-prohibitive nature of higher education continues to hinder higher education’s benefits for individuals and society. Promise programs such as the Kalamazoo Promise (KPromise) decrease fiscal barriers familes face but there are looming questions about how a race-neutral policy ameliorates existing barriers to higher education persistence for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. The present study expands on previous literature by focusing on possible differences among minoritized student groups to measure how KPromise influences higher education success and retention, not solely access. Guided by a critical race theory framework to problematize the interrelated structural inequities informing minoritized student experiences in the schooling pipeline, our study uses multiple group structural equation modeling to examine first-year stop-out for first-time enrolled Black, Latinx, and White KPromise students from the 2011–2017 cohorts. We find KPromise decreased socioeconomic barriers related to college enrollment, performance, and persistence for Black and Latinx students. However, White students continue to benefit from cumulative racial privileges resulting from a combination of higher socioeconomic advantage and precollege educational experiences that maintain racial inequalities along students’ degree pathways.