Youngstown Early College is in jeopardy

By JOEL RATNER and TOM HUMPHRIES

Five years ago, Youngstown Early College was an interesting experiment and a bold idea for how to expose at-risk children to higher education.

In the last five years, Youngstown Early College has moved out of the experimentation stage to the winner’s circle.

Youngstown Early College is a proven way of giving low-income children, first-generation college students and others who are underrepresented in higher education an opportunity to earn a high school diploma and up to two years of college credit — all at no cost.

The Ohio Department of Education has called Youngstown Early College a School of Excellence. There are countless reasons why:

UStudents at the school routinely pass the Ohio Graduation Test.

UNearly all graduate with some college credit and then quickly re-enroll as YSU students. In 2008, for instance, the first class of 41 graduated with four earning associate’s degrees.

UMany come from families where they will be the first to attend college.

UMost live in poverty.

Despite these successes and their rarity in education today, Youngstown Early College’s future is now in question.

In 2008, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland cut funding to all of Ohio’s nine early college high schools.

Youngstown State University and the Youngstown Board of Education worked out a plan so that the school stayed open this academic year. But those same officials are now equivocating about whether they can find funding for future years.

State legislators are also non-committal about if there will be money in the state budget for Youngstown Early College’s future.

Youngstown Early College needs to continue.

Track record

Local and state officials must look at the track record of this exceptional program, consider the research about what exposing at-risk students to higher education does for society in general and find a way to support a program that is working in education in Youngstown.

The mission of Youngstown Early College is far beyond that of a traditional public high school: Youngstown Early College founders recognized that education is a clear path for ending generational cycles of poverty. They understood that in order to grow, communities need people with college training and degrees. They knew that motivated students — if given opportunity — would succeed. Finally, they were well aware of the challenges of traditional public schools.

Armed with these beliefs and knowledge, Youngstown Early College pioneers began selecting ninth graders each year to come to the campus of Youngstown State University and join the program.

The program seeks to provide rigorous academic instruction coupled with community-based learning activities. Youngstown Early College stresses service learning and offers four years of curriculum guided by three major principles: “Rigor, Relevance and Relationships.”

Youngstown Early College, the first of its kind at an Ohio public university, was launched with financial assistance from KnowledgeWorks and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

These organizations and individuals recognized the power of a good idea and provided start-up and initial operating funding. It is now time for Ohio officials, both locally and statewide, to recognize what has progressed to be far more than a good idea.

Youngstown Early College is a success story in education and must become a funding priority for officials.

X Joel Ratner is president of the Raymond John Wean Foundation and Tom Humphries is president and CEO of the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber.