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Free College Booming in Dallas County
[DallasNews] A year ago, he never would have expected so many of his Grand Prairie High School classmates in college. Three-fourths of the school’s student body is economically disadvantaged, and the hurdles to a post-secondary education are high.But in came the Dallas County Promise, he said, and it provided many of his friends ‐ and himself ‐ a viable path. But not everyone, Alexandria. The Promise, launched in October 2017 by the Dallas County Community College District and education nonprofit Commit, pledged to send every graduating senior at 31 area high schools, including Grand Prairie, to community college for free.  While the effort exceeded many of its benchmarks in its infancy ‐ getting 96 percent of 9,000 seniors to sign the pledge, and 67 percent of them to complete their financial aid forms in a timely fashion ‐ the true proof of the program’s success came on the first day of classes.Financial aid forms? What happened to "free"? Don't they teach 'bait and switch' in high school? As of Monday, 2,841 graduates from those 31 high schools are attending classes at a DCCCD campus or at the University of North Texas Dallas, a fellow partner, according to data from Commit. Please tell us how many graduated and how much the average student (graduate or not) owes when they finish attending. That's 40 percent growth in enrollment at DCCCD from those 31 schools (from 1,872 in 2017 to 2,659 in 2018), while UNT Dallas' enrollment went up 30 percent (from 138 to 182). Based on a highly successful state program in Tennessee, the Promise is a last-dollar scholarship, meaning it covers the gaps between the cost of attending and state and federal grants the students receive. The goal is to boost post-secondary attainment across the board: four-year and associate’s degrees and trade certifications. So the taxpayer pays some and they kids finance the rest? This is news? Still, it seems it helped one kid. For Alvarez, the Promise came at a critical time, in the middle of his senior year. He'd always thought about continuing his education after high school, and had designs on attending Texas State or Texas A&M, but wasn't exactly sure how he was going to make ends meet. The Promise solved a lot of those problems, he said. Attending a four-year college is still the target, Alvarez said. But he can stay at home, get up to 60 college credits, and a dental hygienist certificate without being worried about tuition, room and board, and books. While initially skeptical of Promise, Alvarez ‐ the Grand Prairie senior class president ‐ soon became one of its biggest boosters on his high school campus. "I saw how this could help me, this could really help a lot of my friends," he said. "We don't have to have students working at McDonald's or at the mall or in construction ‐ some of the jobs that a lot of people get right out of high school. ... Imagine how much we as Dallas, Texas, will grow, if we have people who are more educated that live here." You could go to work right now for the Democratic Socialist, Alexandria, or the Socialist, Bernie. No education required! Besides, there will be illegal immigrants coming in to fill those entry-level jobs. Posted by: Bobby 2018-09-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=522073 |