National College students seek restoration of grant funding

LIBERTY — Students at the National College campus, 3487 Belmont Ave., will stage a rally at 11 a.m. Saturday seeking support for an effort to restore full Ohio College Opportunity Grant funding to the governor’s biennial budget.

That’s the only state funding assistance available to students attending career colleges such as National College, and the governor’s proposed budget would cut the program by more than half.

There are nearly 300 career colleges and schools operating in Ohio.

OCOG funding for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, is expected to total $61 million. The new budget would also direct that the grants, which can be as much as $3,996 based on family income, no longer go directly to students but to the institutions in which they are enrolled. Career colleges feel that suggested block grant arrangement sets them up for a line-item slash by the governor which could cut all OCOG assistance.

It’s a battle very similar to one successfully fought by career colleges and their students in Ohio two years ago when the state also considered slashing OCOG funding, according to the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools.

“We want our voice to be heard,” said Paul McCartney of McDonald, a third-term student at National College seeking an information systems engineering associate degree.

The OCOG assistance is the only state-funded grant available to career college students, he said, noting the average grant is $2,250 a year. More than 22,500 students are receiving the grant.

Read more in Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com