• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Tuition Offered to Top Students: Pawlenty Proposes Free College for Good Grades, but Plan's Key Details Unclear

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Paul Tosto, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Jun. 28--What's the biggest worry for many college-hopeful teens? Money. Hands down.

"About 90 percent of the kids I know want to go to college but feel like they can't afford it," said Bea Vue, who will be a senior next year at Harding High School in St. Paul.

While she'll be fine -- she is in the top 10 percent of her class, gets support from several private groups and has a scholarship waiting -- Bea Vue says many of her friends don't know at all how they'll pay for college.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty offered a deal Tuesday to those students: Graduate in the top 25 percent of your high school class or score well on college entrance exams and go tuition-free to any Minnesota public college.

His plan would bridge the gap between an eligible student's financial aid package and the cost of tuition and fees for the first two years. The third and fourth years of college would be tuition-free for students who major in math and science.

Pawlenty said the program would give students the ultimate reason not to coast in high school: free college.

Key details of the plan -- which Pawlenty dubbed ACHIEVE (Academic Competitiveness Highlighting Individual Excellence and Valuing Education) -- were missing Tuesday. Officials, for instance, had not yet decided what scores on the ACT or SAT college exams would trigger the tuition-free offer. Some observers asked whether students would take easier courses to boost their grades and qualify for the free tuition.

Others questioned whether the effort would really pull more students into higher education or simply give a taxpayer-financed break to those who can already afford tuition. Many of the state's neediest students don't score high on college entrance exams and don't graduate at the top of their class and probably wouldn't benefit from the governor's proposal.

Pawlenty said, however, that his plan would encourage more students to study harder in high school and help keep Minnesota's brightest in the state. Seniors graduating from high school next year and entering college in fall 2007 would be the first to be eligible. The program could help more than 15,000 graduates a year.

College affordability has become a painful issue in Minnesota. Tuition and fees at the University of Minnesota jumped 77 percent the past five years. The University of Minnesota and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities systems report students taking on record school debt. Colleges blamed the tuition hikes on limited funding from lawmakers.

While increases have moderated, the U will still cost an undergraduate student attending the Twin Cities campus about $9,400 next school year in tuition and fees.

To qualify under Pawlenty's plan, a student would have to come from a family earning $150,000 or less (about 93 percent of state households). First-year college students would have to attend full time for the full year to get the financial aid.

To get a second-year grant, a student would have to maintain a B-average in the first year of college. For third- and fourth-year grants, students would have to maintain the B-average, major in the sciences, math or engineering or in a program to become a math or science teacher.

Pawlenty, a first-term Republican seeking re-election, said he would include the proposal in his next legislative budget and that it would cost about $112 million over the first two years. He didn't say where the money would come from but expressed confidence he could find it.

Pawlenty left the door open to the possibility that private colleges might eventually be included in the offer with a benefit cap.

He denied unveiling the plan for political reasons. However, Pawlenty's main Democratic challenger, Attorney General Mike Hatch, slammed the governor, saying public college tuition had skyrocketed during the Republican's watch.

"The first time he recognized the problem is in the heat of a political campaign," Hatch said.

Peter Hutchinson, the Independence Party candidate for governor, called Pawlenty's proposal a great idea and one that he has advocated for months.

"We've got to double the number of kids who become college graduates," Hutchinson said. "This is part of getting there. The question I think we've got to ask is ... where are we going?"

Reaction among colleges and universities was mixed. Some officials praised the governor for raising the issue but were concerned the plan wouldn't work as planned.

David Laird, president of the Minnesota Private College Council, said he applauds any effort to make college more affordable to those already planning to attend but believes lawmakers should focus on how to help more low- and middle-income students graduate from high school with the achievement and desire for college.

Pawlenty's plan didn't address the state's need to help pull more new students into higher education. ACHIEVE, Laird said, mirrors the approach Georgia took more than a decade ago, noting that that state's effort hasn't put a lot more students in college.

Patrick Christner, an Anoka Ramsey Community College student and the president of the Minnesota State College Student Association, also expressed conflicting opinions.

"We applaud the governor for coming out with some sort of a solution for the problem of affordable tuition" but "we're concerned right now that we have a generation of students since (Pawlenty) came into office that are swimming in debt. We should have been talking about this years ago," Christner said.

At the University of Minnesota, spokesman Dan Wolter said it's positive anytime key policy-makers talk about increased investment in higher education.

"We're eager to learn more and play an active role in this discussion," he said.

One crucial question is what effect the ACHIEVE proposal might have on admissions at the U or other institutions. Wolter said the U wasn't prepared to speculate.

Some observers say these kinds of programs can turn unfair. High schools calculate class rank in different ways. Some schools give honor points to students who complete hard courses and some don't. So while ACHIEVE may set the class-ranking bar at 25 percent, the ability of students in that group can vary dramatically from school to school.

This year, Metropolitan State University and local community colleges offered free tuition to St. Paul and Minneapolis public high school graduates, regardless of how they did in high school.

Metropolitan State President Wilson Bradshaw said the overall thrust of the ACHIEVE plan is positive and colleges should partner with high schools so that all involved understand which courses students need to take to prepare them for college-level work.

Bea Vue, the Harding High School student, also was supportive of Pawlenty's plan.

"I think it's a really good idea," she said. "I think it's going to encourage others to go."

Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

More News in this Category