States that offer free in-state tuition

[Her]

I started reading a bunch of FIRE blogs about six months ago, and have pretty much been lurking and hopping around since them. One thing I've seen in a lot of articles about saving is how to save for kids' college tuition. This is kind of a foreign concept to me because my parents didn't have a college fund for any of us. Instead, because we lived in Louisiana, we were able to take advantage of a program called TOPS. TOPS covers all in-state tuition for four years in exchange for the student having certain classes and GPA in high school, and maintaining a full course schedule and certain GPA in college. With that I was able to graduate debt free without even having to work during school, and my parents only contributed around $800 a semester. (Any gap was covered by other scholarships or money I earned working over breaks.)

I didn't think much of the TOPS program when I was actually in school, but now I'm wondering if such a program is unique to Louisiana, or if there are other states that offer something similar. My Google searches haven't turned up much, so I'm turning to the widespread MMM forums. Has anyone heard of this kind of thing anywhere else?

[gt7152b]

Georgia has the HOPE scholarship which is funded by state lottery income.

[matchewed]

It's less typical that a State is the determining factor on whether a school is tuition free. It's more likely the school itself.

http://college.usatoday.com/2015/07/23/go-to-a-free-college-debt-free-college/

[JZinCO]

New Mexico has a lottery funded scholarship among other scholarships; friends from there have told me it is easy to get a free or very subsidized tuition from the state. http://www.collegegrant.net/new-mexico/

I live in Colorado and VAs get free tuition at some universities; I bet other states do something similar or use matching funds.
Some more: http://www.fool.com/how-to-invest/personal-finance/savings/2015/07/12/these-2-us-states-will-pay-for-your-college-educat.aspx

Not quite the same thing as you were asking but, I got a two "free" years by serving a year in Americorps. It's easy to argue that one could work for a year and save up the equivalent amount of the Americorps scholarship, but that's asking a but from an 18 yo.

The general point you make is correct. Folks needn't assess college costs from the sticker price.