A pledge to keep more kids in school
By Rachel Storch
Guest Columnist
Missouri’s young people are losing out on our knowledge economy. Tens of thousands of very young Missourians are turning their backs on school; they are closing the doors to higher education and its benefits. The loss for society is immeasurable.
We must devise strategies to reverse this tide. We must aggressively help our young people cross the bridge of post-secondary education to the 21st century.
I recently filed legislation modeled on an innovative and successful program in Indiana to help young students close the crucial gap between junior high school and college.
The 21st Century Scholars program invites eighth graders who are eligible for free and reduced lunch to sign a pledge, with at least one parent, affirming that they will remain drug-free, alcohol-free, and crime-free through high school, and that they will maintain a C average.
These students would receive a guarantee of tuition assistance to a public university, private university, community college or technical school within Missouri.
Students would be required to apply for other available federal and state financial aid programs. The 21st Century Scholars grant would be reduced by other existing aid programs.
In Indiana, the current cost per student per year is only $2,040 – a small price to pay when you consider that cutting the Missouri dropout rate in half would add approximately $64 million to our state economy, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education.
In Missouri, the time is right for the 21st Century Scholars program.
Recently, Gov. Matt Blunt proposed selling the assets of the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA), which would yield hundreds of millions of dollars. If this sale goes through, Missouri will be uniquely positioned to create new scholarship programs for our students.
There is no better way to reinforce our commitment to protect access to post-secondary education than to create a structure that helps guarantee that access. This is our pledge to every student, particularly the low-income student.
The 21st Century Scholars program will not solve every problem in our schools. In Indiana, 15 years after the program’s inception, program coordinators have recognized that many students have not had adequate preparation in math and science; in response, the state has bolstered tutoring at the college level.
The Indiana program has enrolled more than 122,000 students. More than 50 percent have proudly maintained their pledges through high school. For the low-income student, participation in the program triples the odds that the student will graduate from college.
Blunt has already proposed using $100 million of the MOHELA proceeds to establish a scholarship endowment. Directing these funds to the 21st Century Scholars program would be a very sound investment.
Together, we can provide Missouri students – citizens of the Show-Me State – with the education essential to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
Rachel Storch is state representative for District 64.