COLLEGE - Cutting Costs for Disadvantage Students

"Cutting higher ed costs for Chicago’s disadvantaged students" PBS NewsHour 10/1/2014

Excerpt

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Now, back here at home, some news about college.

Two separate pushes were announced today in Chicago aimed at improving access to higher education among lower-income students.

Jeffrey Brown has the story.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  The moves, announced separately, will eliminate costs at one of the nation’s most elite universities and at the city’s community colleges.

University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer announced a plan that will replace loans with grants, simplify the application process, and ensure that some students don’t have to take jobs during the academic year.  University officials said the changes will build on programs for lower-income students at the school, such as Anthony Downer.

ANTHONY DOWNER, Student, University of Chicago:  I knew I wanted to attend a top college, but the question for my family and so many other low-income families was, how will we pay for it?

JEFFREY BROWN:  Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel also announced a separate plan to provide free community college tuition to all Chicago public high school students who graduate with a 3.0 grade-point average or better and are ready for college-level math and English.

MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL, Chicago:  We live in a time where you earn what you learn.  The big factor in determining whether people complete school, drop out of the school is cost.

JEFFREY BROWN:  The proposals come amid growing pressure on colleges and universities to enroll and graduate more disadvantaged students.  And they follow similar moves around the country.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the state of Tennessee, for example, are providing free tuition at community colleges with the hope of raising low graduation rates.  Among top-tier schools, several have policies guaranteeing lower-income families don’t have to pay for college.

Still, disadvantaged students remain poorly represented on many of their campuses.

Here to tell us more about these initiatives are Robert Zimmer, president of the University of Chicago, and Cheryl Hyman, chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago.