NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — As many as 18,000 Tennessee Promise students could use the scholarship to begin classes this week at a state community or technical college.

Gov. Bill Haslam is expected to visit some campuses on Monday and Tuesday to help kickoff the program he created to provide high school graduates with two years of tuition-free attendance at the two-year institutions, which start classes on Monday.

As of Aug. 1, there were more than 22,000 students qualified to attend through the program.

Shelby County has the largest number of qualified students at 2,512, followed by Knox County with 1,733. Davidson County had 1,202 qualified students.

Tennessee Promise executive director Mike Krause told The Associated Press on Sunday that he expects between 16,000 and 18,000 students to actually enroll