In 2025, both Texas and Arkansas received grants from Complete College America (CCA) aimed at accelerating college completion, closing equity gaps, and modernizing state policy frameworks. These awards mark an important inflection point for higher education in both states, offering momentum to longstanding reform efforts. This article updates the original narrative with fresh data, policy developments, and expert insight to show how these grants might reshape access, affordability, and student success.
What is Complete College America — and Why It Matters
Complete College America is a national nonprofit organization that advances state-level strategies to improve college completion rates, particularly for underrepresented populations. Its model emphasizes aligning policy, practice, and data infrastructure to scale proven reform strategies. Complete College America+1
CCA regularly awards multi-year grants to states or consortia that commit to measurable targets and structural reforms in higher education. Complete College America+1 In 2025, Texas and Arkansas emerged among those selected to receive such support, positioning them for renewed change across community colleges and public universities.
The Grants: Texas and Arkansas in 2025
Texas
Texas’s grant from CCA aligns with long-running efforts to bolster “some college, no credential” (SCNC) populations, strengthen transfer pathways, and redesign developmental education. The state already operates a Texas Completion Repayment Grant program as part of a broader $94.6 million commitment to support students whose education was disrupted by COVID-19.
In addition, Texas continues to administer its TEXAS Grant (Toward Excellence, Access, and Success) program. For the 2025–26 academic year, the maximum award is capped at $5,000. For context, in 2024–25, eligible students could receive up to $5,394 per semester—or $16,182 for the full academic year. getschooled.com
These state-level supports, combined with the new CCA grant, set the stage for Texas to integrate policy levers (such as adopting a “15 to Finish” credit policy) and institutional supports (such as guided pathways and predictive analytics) with statewide coordination.
Arkansas
In Arkansas, the CCA award reinforces the state’s ongoing focus on boosting community college completion rates and expanding transfer success. According to CommunityCollegeReview.com, the average community college completion rate in Arkansas for first-time, full-time students is 36% for the 2025–26 cohort. Community College Review
On the cost front, Arkansas’s public and private institutions remain relatively affordable. For the 2024–25 academic year, in-state tuition and fees averaged $9,062, and out-of-state rates averaged $16,159. CollegeTuitionCompare
The CCA grant is expected to help Arkansas better leverage these cost advantages by pouring resources into strategic student success infrastructure—such as math redesign, intrusive advising, and competency-based remediation.
Why These Grants Are Opportunity Catalysts
The infusion of external resources from CCA enables states to take risks and accelerate reform in ways that pure budgetary allocations often cannot. Several reasons underscore the potential impact:
Policy alignment across institutions
CCA grants typically require states to adopt common reforms—such as on-time graduation incentives, credit transfer guarantees, or campus redesigns—in a coordinated fashion. That alignment can reduce friction and foster consistency across institutions.Capacity-building at lower-resourced colleges
Some community colleges and regional campuses lack bandwidth to design data systems or scale advising reforms. The grant acts as a capacity multiplier.Accountability tied to metrics
The CCA model hinges on tracking meaningful outcomes—such as on-time graduation, equity gaps, and credit accumulation—forcing grantees to continuously evaluate and adjust.Leverage for further funding
A successful CCA grant can attract additional philanthropic or state investment by demonstrating proof of concept.
In short, the Texas and Arkansas awards are not just one-time infusions—they are growth engines for sustained system reform.
Key Changes and Challenges in 2025
Rising Enrollment Trends
After years of enrollment decline tied to post-pandemic shifts, U.S. college enrollment rebounded in 2025 with a 3.2% increase in spring headcounts. That boost gives reformers more urgency: rather than shrinking numbers, colleges now need to serve more students—and do so equitably.
Federal Aid Cuts Loom
In Texas, proposals in the 2025 federal budget would cut the maximum Pell Grant by $1,500 and tighten eligibility for part-time students. Such changes could disproportionately affect nontraditional and community college students—many of whom are precisely the populations CCA awards aim to serve.
At San Jacinto College alone (in the Houston metro area), stricter Pell thresholds could cause up to 2,500 students to lose grants outright and reduce aid for another 5,000. If enacted nationally, these changes could erode the impact of state-level completion reforms.
Tuition and Cost Pressures
In Texas, average in-state tuition and fees for 4-year public institutions in 2025–26 is $8,692, while out-of-state rates reach $26,688. Education Data Initiative
Texas community college tuition remains more affordable than most states—14.5% below the national average. Education Data Initiative
In Arkansas, the average in-state tuition for the 2024–25 year remains at $9,062, slightly below national averages. CollegeTuitionCompare
These relatively modest tuition baselines give both states a competitive edge—if they can pair them with stronger student success strategies.
Equity and Completion Gaps
While the CCA grants emphasize closing racial, income, and adult learner gaps, the states must wrestle with deep-seated disparities. A core task will be to ensure that Black, Latinx, first-generation, and low-income students benefit fully from redesigned support systems—not just advantaged cohorts.
Real-World Example: Guided Transfer in Practice
In Texas, one promising case is Austin Community College (ACC), which launched a guided transfer pathway agreement with the University of Texas system. Under this model, ACC maps degree plans that ensure seamless transfer, preloading courses that meet the receiving institution’s requirements.
This effort reduced unnecessary credit accumulation and improved completion outcomes. If scaled statewide under the CCA grant’s framework, this model could reduce time-to-degree by 1 to 1.5 semesters.
In Arkansas, Arkansas State University – Mountain Home piloted an intrusive-advising program where students at risk of falling behind were proactively met by dedicated “progress coaches.” Retention and credit momentum improved measurably. Scaling that model through the CCA grant could accelerate degree attainment across rural and regional institutions.
What to Watch: Indicators of Success
To evaluate whether these CCA awards fulfill their promise—or fall short—stakeholders should monitor:
On-time graduation rates (especially 2- and 4-year benchmarks)
Credit accumulation momentum metrics (e.g. students earning 15 or 30 credits in Year 1)
Equity gap reductions across race/ethnicity and Pell status
Transfer success rates, particularly for community college students
Sustainability of reforms post-grant, especially whether the state and institution budgets absorb new practices
Student feedback about support services (e.g. advising, co-requisite remediation)
If Texas and Arkansas manage these levers well, the grants will not simply pay for “pilot programs”—they may catalyze generational improvements in higher education.
Implications for Parents, Students & Educators
For parents and prospective students, these grants matter because they may translate into:
More predictable transfer pathways
Stronger support systems (coaching, planning, guided schedules)
Reduced time and cost to degree
Greater assurance that historically underserved students will not be left behind
For educators and administrators, the grants provide:
A framework (and funding) to rethink remediation, advising, and credit policies
A mandate to base decisions on data, not intuition
A lever to unify disparate reforms under a coherent statewide agenda
If applied wisely, the CCA grants could help these states transcend fragmented reform efforts and instead build durable, scalable systems of student success.
Looking Ahead
The 2025 awards to Texas and Arkansas are timely. As enrollment rebounds, federal aid faces headwinds, and competition for educated talent intensifies, higher education systems must do more with less. These grants offer both financial support and catalytic leverage—but much depends on execution.
With vigilant tracking of metrics, responsive adjustments, and long-term commitment beyond the funding window, these states can transform this moment into a structural turning point. If the reforms stick, future generations of students may benefit from shorter, fairer, and more efficient pathways to a degree.
