Can you get a free .edu email account?

There are several ways but none that you are looking for.

1. buy a university

2. become a student

3. become a janitor at a univ

4. look up the list of approved schools and find one that does not use their .edu domain name and register it.. .edu is NOT cheap.

5. figure out how to spoof your own email address to "look like" it's .edu