No. The Debt-Free Tuition funding is only available to full or part-time students enrolling in an upcoming semester and who began college in Fall 2020 or later. The program designated as the “Mary Ann Handley Award” — formerly Pledge to Advance Connecticut or PACT — covers t he gap between federal and state grants, and community college tuition and mandatory fees.  To receive funding, students need to be Connecticut residents, fill out a FAFSA, attend community college part- or full-time, enroll in a degree or credit-bearing certificate program and be a state public or private high school graduate — GED and home schooled students qualify too. The awards must apply to the first 72 credit hours earned by a student in a community college degree-granting or certificate program. The goal of the program is to help students graduate debt-free, without student loans. This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one. CT Mirror partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Sources Connecticut State Colleges and Universities Debt-Free Tuition at CT State Community CollegeCT State Community College Free tuition at CT state ...read more read less