Microsoft Corp., Boeing Co., and the Seattle-based College Success Foundation have offered to work with the state to raise millions of dollars in assistance to college students facing sharp tuition increases at state universities, Rep. Tim Probst, D-Vancouver, announced Tuesday. Under legislation scheduled to be introduced today, the first scholarships would become available in December.
The public-private “Opportunity Scholarships” program, which calls for state matching money, would seek to raise as much as $20 million by Dec. 1.
Some of the scholarships might be reserved for students studying high-demand fields including science, technology, engineering and math.
Probst, who has been handling negotiations with the companies throughout the 2011 legislative session, called the offer “jaw-droppingly generous.”
“Just when we had run out of options, our private sector stepped up with an incredible new solution,” he said.
Higher education cuts under consideration in the Legislature for the 2011-13 budget cycle would trigger a 13 percent increase in tuition next year for students in the state university system and 11 percent increases for students at four-year colleges and community colleges. That’s on top of double-digit tuition hikes students at state universities have had to weather over the past two years.
Under the Opportunity Scholarships Act, Probst said, for the first time Washington would have a major tuition assistance program that reaches well into the middle class. Under terms of the program, students from families earning of up 125 percent of median family income, or $97,500 for a family of four, would be eligible for aid.
Bob Craves, CEO and co-founder of the College Success Foundation, said the program would help raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 years for middle-income and low-income students. “It will dramatically increase the number of Washington residents completing their college degrees,” he said in a statement.
The foundation raises money from corporations to help low-income students attend college.
Probst, who sits on both the House education policy and education appropriations committees, said the intent of the program is to create “long-term fundamental reform, not just a short-term Band-Aid,” in addressing the costs of higher education. In addition to funding immediate scholarships, the Opportunity Scholarships Act would create a long-term public-private endowment, offer grants to encourage students to seek degrees in high-demand fields, and leverage private contributions to help fund state need grants.
Probst said the contributing companies are being “generous, but also practical,” because their own future growth requires the skills students will acquire.
A fact sheet on the program said the state would match private contributions dollar for dollar, but the state contribution would be capped at $50 million annually. When the two legislative chambers would take up the proposal was unclear; the state Senate released its budget Tuesday night, and negotiations to reconcile the House and Senate budgets will begin later this week.
Half the money raised would go to pay for immediate scholarship assistance and half would go to the endowment account until the fund exceeded $20 million.
Money from the endowment account would be tied to the state’s success in boosting higher education funding to the 60th percentile among high-achieving U.S. states.
To qualify, scholarship recipients would have to be accepted into an eligible education or training program, declare their intent to obtain a four-year degree, and apply for federal tax credits. Most scholarships would be for $1,000 or the difference between the tuition charged in the 2008-2009 academic year and the academic year for which the scholarship is granted.
