Excerpts
SUMMARY: More than ever, the challenge for low-income students is not getting into college, but finishing. Last year, employees of the coffee chain Starbucks were given the chance to benefit from a unique financial aid: If they work at least 20 hours a week, they are eligible for a four-year free education. Judy Woodruff reports as part of a collaboration between The Atlantic and the PBS NewsHour.
Correction: This video includes narration reporting that U.S. student debt totals $1.3 billion. The correct figure is 1.3 trillion. This has been corrected in the transcript. The PBS NewsHour regrets the error.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Now from coffee to college.
In our latest story in partnership with The Atlantic magazine, we look at unusual push by Starbucks to give their employees access to higher education.
It’s 6:00 a.m., and 23 year-old Markelle Collum-Herbison is already at the computer, getting in a little studying before she’s off to her full-time job.
WOMAN: I’m so proud of her.
MARKELLE COLLUM-HERBISON: I knew that the only way out was to have an education.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The plan had always been that mom and dad would help Markelle pay for some of that education.
MARKELLE COLLUM-HERBISON: They lived in a five-bedroom home, three bathrooms, two-story. It was beautiful.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That all changed overnight in 2008, when the economic crash hit Markelle’s family brutally.
MARCELLE COLLUM-HERBISON: I remember signing up for food stamps. It was that bad.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, Markelle is still living at home to help make ends meet. She is one of 21 million people enrolled in U.S. colleges this year. Now, more than ever, the challenge for low-income students and others is not getting into college, but finishing.
AMANDA RIPLEY, “The Atlantic”: American colleges are not really historically designed to make sure students finish. They are designed to enroll students.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Writer and author Amanda Ripley has specialized in higher education.
AMANDA RIPLEY: We have one of the highest college dropout rates in the developed world. We have 35 million people now who have started college and not gotten a degree.
JUDY WOODRUFF: For Markelle, a scholarship to community college got her through two years, but she had no idea how to afford the two more years it would take to earn a degree while working 40-hour weeks at Starbucks.
She is one of the first Starbucks employees to benefit from a unique financial aid program started last year by an unusual duo, the man who introduced Americans to the grande latte, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and the president of Arizona State University, Michael Crow; announced the expansion of a program that will have the company pay for the college education of its employees.
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HOWARD SCHULTZ, CEO, Starbucks: The role and responsibility of a for-profit public company can’t be just about making money. It has to be about giving back, and it has to be about achieving the balance between profit and social impact.
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