Saturday, October 20, 2007
City school graduates could qualify for two years of free tuition at YSU.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN — A $20,000 grant from the Raymond John Wean Foundation will help the city school district determine if there is support for a program that could provide free college tuition for city school graduates.
It’s something school officials are referring to as “The Youngstown Promise,” modeled after a similar program in Kalamazoo, Mich.
The grant will fund a feasibility study to determine if the program could be started here.
The idea is to offer two years of free tuition at Youngstown State University for city school graduates who opt to attend the local university.
The project is only in the early discussion stages at this point, said Dr. Wendy Webb, Youngstown schools superintendent.
Such a program would be good for the community, the school district and YSU, she predicted, noting that there is definite interest in increasing the number of college-educated residents in the Mahoning Valley. Only 18 percent are college graduates now.
It would require forming a partnership with YSU as well as the creation of a foundation to fund and operate the program, Webb said.
The Youngstown Promise wouldn’t follow a funding formula put forth by the Regional Chamber in its call for consolidation of top school district offices by county.
The chamber proposal would create a tuition assistance program by using money saved by eliminating superintendents to help send local high school graduates to YSU or Kent State campuses in Trumbull and Columbiana counties.
Webb said the Youngstown Promise would rely on private and foundation support to provide that financial assistance.
“We’re going to look at the community and nationally,” Webb said.
The program will have some eligibility requirements that students will have to meet to access the free funds, but none of those details have been established yet, she said.
Just how much such a program might cost also hasn’t been determined. That would be a factor of the number of students deemed eligible, the current rate of tuition at YSU and any administrative costs in setting up and running the program, Webb said.
Current tuition and mandatory fees for full-time Ohio undergraduates at YSU is $6,721 a year.
Webb said the school district already has a small committee looking into the creation of the program. The district needs to take a very close look at the Kalamazoo program to see how it functions, what its costs are and what problems or challenges it faces, she said.
gwin@vindy.com