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What Can We Promise Our Kids?
Pensacola Council Member Proposes Growth Through Education
Pensacola is a shrinking city. Residents have fled the 450-year-old city in droves over the past two decades. Nearly 3,500 fewer people live inside the city limits today than in 2000 and 1,792 fewer people than in 1990.
People pay less in property taxes but receive comparable services in unincorporated areas of Escambia County. They can use city parks and facilities without having to pay for them. There are few incentives to live inside the Pensacola city limits.
Council member Maren DeWeese wants to stop the exodus. She plans to do it by offering Pensacola residents college tuition for their high school graduates.
"I absolutely believe if we form our own Promise tuition program that it will be a game-changer," DeWeese says. "The scholarships will create a reason for families to pick Pensacola when they move into this area."
"This will be an investment in our children that will have a measurable result. We will be giving employers a much more educated worker."
Promising college tuition as an economic development incentive is not new. Kalamazoo, Michigan first did this in 2006. Other cities like Denver, Pittsburgh and El Dorado, Ark., have followed suit with similar programs that promise college tuition for their high school graduates.
EL DORADO GOLD
El Dorado, Ark. is a small town of under 21,000 near the Louisiana border. The racial makeup of the city is almost split evenly, with 54 percent white and 44 percent African-American. The median income for an El Dorado household is $7,700 less than a Pensacola household. Like Pensacola, El Dorado has a community college, South Arkansas Community College, and a symphony.
The Arkansas town also has a distinct advantage over Pensacola. It is the home of Murphy Oil Corporation, which has donated $50 million to endow El Dorado Promise, a scholarship program for El Dorado High School graduates.
"Unlike other promise initiatives, El Dorado Promise allows the graduates to go to any school, public or private, in the country," says Jim Fause, the program's administrator. "The program pays up to the highest tuition of any Arkansas state college or university, which is currently $6,505.
When Murphy Oil announced El Dorado Promise in January 2007, the local school district had experienced 20 years of declining enrollment. That changed in the 2007-2008 school year. The total enrollment in El Dorado Public Schools increased by a net of 140 students, a three percent jump.
Since El Dorado Promise awards the scholarship based on years in the public school system, the enrollment for the kindergarten class of 2007-2008 jumped up by nearly 12 percent. In fact, the kindergarten and first grade classes have been the largest ever recorded in the El Dorado School District two years in a row.
"The El Dorado Promise awards 100 percent of the tuition to those who started in kindergarten here," Fause explains. "If you enroll in ninth grade, you receive 65 percent when you graduate."
The program has changed the aspirations of the city's students. Their website, eldoradopromise.com, has testimonials from teachers and students.
"After The Promise was announced, students became more career-minded, more focused," says teacher Anwar Fairley. "Students understand now how the education they are receiving equals a better future. They are making plans now they wouldn't have been making before The Promise."
"My mom is very excited," says student Talesha Christian. "She is a single mom, and I have a younger brother. We'll both be able to attend college because of the El Dorado Promise."
Fause points out that about 82 percent of all the El Dorado High School graduates are now attending college. Before 2007, only about 60 percent enrolled in college.
"We have spent time one-on-one encouraging the kids who weren't going to college to give it a try."
Fause and his team have been very successful. El Dorado's percentage of high school graduates attending college exceeds both the state (64.7 percent) and the national (66 percent) rates. Additionally, 67 percent of 2007 El Dorado graduates who began college returned for their second year, compared to the Arkansas return rate of 48 percent for community colleges and 68 percent for universities.
In addition to the obvious benefits to education, El Dorado Promise has had a positive impact on the local housing market. As of October 2007, home sales in Union County, where El Dorado is the county seat, were up nearly four percent, despite a nine percent decrease statewide. Additionally, average selling prices were up 1.71 percent, surpassing the state average increase of 1.14 percent.
KALAMAZOO CATALYST
Kalamazoo is the largest city in southwest Michigan with a population of a little over 72,161, which is about 36 percent more than Pensacola. The median income for a household in the city is $31,189, which is less than Pensacola's $34,753.
Kalamazoo Promise was launched a little over a year before Murphy Oil made its announcement in El Dorado. It offers free college tuition to Michigan state colleges to all students who graduate form Kalamazoo public school and live in the district. The program uses the same graded scale for tuition as El Dorado Promise.
Michelle Miller-Adams, a visiting scholar at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, has written extensively on the Kalamazoo effort. In her report, "The Impact of the Kalamazoo Promise on Economic Revitalization," Miller-Adams writes, "At first glance, it is easy to miss the economic development implications of the Kalamazoo PromiseThe anticipated results include higher lifetime earnings for the community's young people, a better-trained workforce for area businesses, and a school district that has more resources and is more diverse in terms of both race and socioeconomic status."
Kalamazoo Promise currently has 836 students using the scholarship at 12 universities and seven community colleges. The two local schools, Western Michigan
University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College, are the two most popular schools, having more then 60 percent of all Promise students combined.
As we wrote in "Reindeer Games" (Independent News, April 30), Kalamazoo has had 400 families move into the school district. School enrollment has jumped 12 percent. Graduation rates are up 21 percent.
Miller-Adams believes the scholarship program will reap economic benefits for Kalamazoo.
"By creating incentives for current residents to remain in the district and new residents to move in, the scholarship program is expected to bring about a tightening in the slack housing market and higher property values. The Promise also makes the community more attractive for businesses seeking to invest, expand or relocate; not only will their employees' children have access to free college tuition, but the businesses themselves will be able to tap an increasingly well-trained workforce."
PITTSBURGH CHALLENGES
The Pittsburgh Promise has taken a slightly different approach. It has challenged the private sector to contribute funds and the public sector to do a better job of preparing students for college.
In 2007, Pittsburgh Promise program was launched with a $100 million commitment by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which included an initial $10 million and the remaining $90 million as a challenge grant.
The challenge has spurred a community-wide campaign to raise an additional $135 million$15 million per year over the next nine years. For every $3 contribution, UPMC provides an additional $2 to The Pittsburgh Promise Fund.
The Pittsburgh Promise pays $5,000 each year for up to four years to help with expenses related to tuition, mandatory fees, books, dorm, and meal plan. The scholarship can only be used for Pennsylvania state-funded schools, community colleges and private schools in Allegheny County that offer two or four year degree programs.
To be eligible, the student must be a graduate from Pittsburgh Public Schools, be a student in the district and a resident of Pittsburgh continuously since at least the ninth grade, earn a minimum of 2.25 GPA and maintain a minimum of 85 percent attendance record. By 2010, the GPA requirement will increase to 2.5 and the attendance record will go up to 90 percent.
The Pittsburgh Promise is different than the other two programs because it challenges the Pittsburgh Public Schools to better prepare its students for education beyond high school. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is considering requiring a high school graduation exam. If Pittsburgh Public Schools implements such an exam, the maximum scholarship award from The Pittsburgh Promise will increase to $10,000 each year for students who pass the graduation exam. Students who do not pass still qualify for scholarship awards of up to $5,000 annually.
The community response has been very positive. In recent months, many of the region's foundations have made multi-year investments, totaling $11.5 million annually, to the program. The school district has announced plans to review students' records at third, sixth and ninth grades to make sure students are on track to graduate on time and take advantage of the scholarships.
NO PROMISE IN DAVENPORT
Not all communities have embraced the Promise concept. Davenport, Iowa voters overwhelmingly rejected in March a measure to fund the Davenport Promise. The vote was reminiscent of the first Trillium referendum, 9,717 against, 6,235 in favor.
The Davenport Promise proposal was unique in that it would have been funded with 30 percent of the city's local-option sales tax. Public and private high school graduates living in the city would have received college scholarships up to $20,000 to pay for all or part of their tuition, depending on which school they attended and how long they resided in Davenport. To qualify, they had to complete 400 hours of community service during high school and get accepted into a college program.
Like El Dorado, students were not limited as to where they could attend college and would be able to attend any institution in the country. Those who chose vocational training would have received an amount up to the tuition rate at the local community college, while those who entered the military would have received a $7,500 homestead grant upon returning home.
The Davenport Promise measure failed because the town council was divided on the issue and the opposition group, Opt 4 Better, convinced voters that the city had more pressing infrastructure needs. Also, some believed the students would leave the area once they got their college education.
City Alderman Bill Lynn, an economics professor, told reporters before the vote that the program would only increase the area's "brain drain" at the taxpayer's expense.
"Students who live in Iowa get educated in Iowa and then leave," Lynn said. "This is an extremely indirect way to facilitate economic development."
WHAT CAN PENSACOLA PROMISE?
Councilwoman DeWeese wants Pensacola to explore the possibility of establishing a scholarship program for students that graduate from our public high schools and live inside the city limits of Pensacola.
She plans to present the scholarship proposal to the Pensacola City Council at its Committee of the Whole meeting on May 11.
"If they like the concept, then I will make a motion that we appoint a committee to work out details and set all the parameters for the program," DeWeese says. "My goal would be to have this as part of the 2009-2010 city budget so that we can give scholarships to the graduating high school seniors by 2010."
DeWeese envisions the program working similarly to other Promise initiatives. She would like to have it be funded with private dollars that the public sector matches.
"I am just not sure we can raise the necessary funds to get the program started," DeWeese says. She proposes jumpstarting the program with the $3.3 million that the city will receive over the next four years from selling property at the airport.
DeWeese thinks that initially the tuition should only be for students to attend Pensacola Junior College and the University of West Florida but is willing to hear what the scholarship committee recommends.
"I do hope the final plan is one that is simple and that allows as many Pensacola high school seniors to attend college as possible. The simpler the program, the lower the administrative costs."
DeWeese says the response to her idea since she posted it on her blog two weeks ago has been positive. However, she knows that not everyone will like the idea of the city offering college scholarships.
"It wouldn't be Pensacola if there wasn't some pushback," DeWeese says with a smile. "I just hope we can all pull together and figure out how to make this idea work, instead of focusing on how it can't be done.
"After all, our children are worth the investment."
