‘Career Advance Colorado’ brings free tuition to select programs at 19 state colleges this fall

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Coloradans attending community or technical colleges could get their tuition paid for by the state.

Following the implementation of a bill this week by Governor Jared Polis, 19 different community and technical colleges in the state will be given funding to cover all tuition and other educational costs for students in certain programs, beginning this coming school year.

The state will spread the $38.6 million allotted for the program amongst the various colleges to help produce skilled workers for in-demand jobs.

In order for a student to be eligible for the "Career Advance Colorado" initiative - they must enroll in one of the following programs at a given school, and apply for state and/or federal financial aid.

• Construction
• Nursing
• Education
• Early Childhood Education
• Forestry
• Firefighting
• Law Enforcement

Officials with Pikes Peak State College said they're "really excited" to see the bill passed this week.

"The programs that we're funding with this. They typically have pretty good enrollment, but we expect to see enrollment spikes because of this," said Matt Radcliffe, the Interim Executive Director of Marketing and Communication for Pikes Peak State College.

Radcliffe stated that programs like Fire Science Technology, Law Enforcement, Building and Construction Technology, and Early Childhood Education will be eligible under the new state program, but that over the next few weeks, they will have a more concrete list of what programs will be eligible.

For now, however, they're very optimistic about what the program will do for Southern Colorado.

"What those enrollment spikes mean for the Pikes Peak region, and in Colorado Springs, is more firefighters out on the streets, more police officers" explained Radcliffe. "[As well as] providing more educators so that families have ways to take advantage of the governor's Pre-K program."

Radcliffe added that the college will know better in the next few weeks the exact amount of funding they'll receive, but expect it to be a "significant amount" of money.

For a full list of the 19 schools that are participating in Career Advance Colorado, and each of their anticipated educational programs that will be eligible for free tuition, click here.