As chairman of Oregon's Senate Education Committee, Mark Hass kept hearing about the growing population of unemployed young adults age 24 and younger who had no education beyond high school. Until now, cost has prevented many high school graduates from even exploring a higher education. Hass is sponsoring a bill that would enable recent high school graduates in Oregon to attend two years of community college at almost no cost. President Barack Obama proposed a similar national initiative called America's College Promise, but Oregon is one of a handful of states that is not waiting for federal action to make community college more accessible to students. After years of declining state budgets for higher education, the tide could be turning, and community colleges could be the key beneficiaries. Obama's "America's College Promise" initiative has cast a national spotlight on college accessibility, but before the proposal was announced, a number of states were already interested in what Tennessee is doing with its groundbreaking Tennessee Promise program--a scholarship program that provides what is known as "last-dollar" aid to Tennessee's high school graduates to ensure they can attend a state community college without having to pay any tuition or fees. This article discusses how the Tennessee Promise program began, how it is being currently funded, the projected expenses per student, and the initial success of this new program. A section titled "State Proposals in Play" lists eight states that have introduced legislation to make community college more affordable. This section summarizes the bills being considered in each of the eight states.