In 2008,
Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale approached then
Knoxville Mayor
Bill Haslam with a non-profit organization that would cover gaps in tuition coverage at community colleges and technical schools for local high school students. KnoxAchieves, a non-profit dedicated to providing a last-dollar scholarship and mentorship program for low-income incoming college freshman, was initiated in Knox County in 2008 and later expanded to the statewide program TnAchieves. In May 2014, legislation passed creating the TN Promise scholarship and mentorship program based upon these previous initiatives; as a last-dollar scholarship, TN Promise covers all tuition and fees which exceed the student's previously granted scholarships and aid such as the Tennessee
HOPE Scholarship and the
Federal Pell grant. The TN Promise program received nationwide attention with the states of Oregon, Rhode Island, and New York since creating similar programs. In 2015, President
Barack Obama visited east Tennessee's
Pellissippi State Community College to promote affordable higher education initiatives, notably
America's College Promise, a nationwide program based on TN Promise. More recently in fall 2020, the University of Tennessee began UT Promise which provides free tuition for students with household incomes of less than $50,000 per year. == References ==