Idaho Still Lags in College Attendance

By Anne Wallace Allen, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Nov. 12–Samantha Stenlund says if she can make it to college, almost anyone can. Her parents both dropped out of high school; so did her sister and brother. Her single mother can’t help with tuition.

But Stenlund, an 18-year-old Capital High senior, has her heart set on attending the College of Idaho in Caldwell, and she has applied to a backup school just in case she doesn’t get into her first choice.

"There are scholarships, there are grants," said Stenlund, who has a 3.7 GPA. "If you are willing to work at it, there’s always a way to make it."

Her peers around the state don’t appear to share that optimism. Idaho has one of the lowest rates of college participation in the country. A 2006 study found that just 26 percent of Idaho’s 18- to 24-year-olds participated in college, compared with 42 percent in high-performing states like Michigan and Connecticut.

While college enrollment has been stagnant in most of the country over the past decade, Idaho’s college participation rate has declined, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a San Jose, Calif. nonprofit research group that studies education in all 50 states. The chance that a young adult — up to age 19 — from Idaho would enter college was 40 percent in 1992. By 2006, it had declined to 35 percent, said Joni Finney, vice president of the group. In top-ranked states, the chance a young adult would enter college was 53 percent.

Finney’s group gave Idaho a "D" grade for college participation, a bottom-of-the-barrel ranking that the Gem State shares with Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina.

Finney’s group, which is supported by private organizations, puts out a national report every two years using data from public sources such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Census Bureau and the federal Department of Education.

Finney and Tom Mortenson, an Iowa-based education policy analyst who lectures and consults for organizations around the country, both said scarce financial aid appears to be one reason Idaho students often stop their education after high school.

According to Mortenson’s data, in 2006 Idaho ranked 46th in the nation for its state contribution to low-income students’ tuition. Since then, the state has increased its financial aid offerings; last winter the Legislature approved an additional $10 million in scholarship funding.

Compared with other states, Finney said, "Idaho does very little in terms of providing financial aid to needy students."

Many students also are held back by low expectations, said Boise State University President Bob Kustra, who worked hard in 2005 and 2006 to get the Idaho Legislature to strengthen high school graduation requirements so more students would be ready for college. There’s a perception in many families that college isn’t worth the cost, or that it’s too expensive, he said.

"We must roll up our sleeves to create a mind-set among our young people, their parents and their elected officials that higher education is the key to a prosperous future for us all — no matter where the students enroll," Kustra said.

Educators and policymakers are trying to encourage more Idaho teens to go to college. Boise School District has AVID, a national program that was instituted at Fairmont Junior High in Boise last year, at Riverglen Junior High this year, and is planned for West and South junior highs in two years.

Aimed at low-income kids or kids from families where nobody else has succeeded academically, AVID provides tutoring, teaches study methods and introduces students early to the concept of choosing a college and paying for it.

Nationally, about 95 percent of the kids who come out of an AVID program go on to post-secondary education, said Amy Kohlmeier, Fairmont Junior High’s principal. She predicted most of her school’s 180 AVID students will take advanced placement courses in high school and go to college because of the program.

"It’s not that they’re not bright; it’s that they didn’t have the support and didn’t know what to do," Kohlmeier said. "When we selected them last year (for the AVID program) they were generally surprised and said, ‘I can do that?’"

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna hopes to include money in his budget this year for students to take college classes in their junior and senior years of high school.

"Maybe some of those students who don’t believe they’re college-ready would have that experience and see that they are college material, and would be encouraged to go on," said Luna’s spokeswoman, Melissa McGrath.

For Stenlund, success started with encouragement from her grandfather, Albert Hughes, who, even before she started kindergarten, drilled her in math and English as she accompanied him on chores at his ranch in Mountain Home. Hughes had left school after sixth grade, Stenlund said.

"He told me that the way the world is changing, you won’t be able to survive if you don’t continue your education," she said. Her grandfather died in 2002. "He made me promise to continue my education; I think about that."

Hughes encouraged Stenlund’s older siblings and cousins, too, but the message didn’t take, said her mother, Katie Hughes. Stenlund’s brother and sister dropped out early in high school. Her mother and sister later got their GEDs.

Stenlund’s family moved to Boise two years ago, and since then more family moves have put her in three high schools, including two separate stints at Capital. But Stenlund doesn’t let that slow her down. Seeing the struggles of her siblings drives her to work toward a different way of life. She also credits a Boise State program called TRIO that helps steer high school students toward college.

"I want more than to be stuck in a dead-end job," Stenlund said. "Even if I do end up with debt when I leave school, it will be worth it."

Anne Wallace Allen: 377-6433

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