School Will Refund Tuition to Jobless Students

A community college in Michigan is offering what may be a first-in-the-nation deal: a money-back guarantee to students if they don't land a job. Lansing Community College promises to return the $2,400 students will shell out for six-week training courses in May. Graduates—they'll get certificates, not degrees—will be "call-center specialists," pharmacy technicians, quality inspectors, and computer machinists.

"If every community college in America did something like that, they'd all be broke," a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution tells Time. "They'd be refunding all their tuition." The college explains the move by saying it hopes to increase enrollment, especially among students who might not otherwise consider going to school.


(More community college stories.)