Lawmaker calls for task force to explore scholarship opportunities

Benjamin Mchie, a board member with the Council on Black Minnesotans, believes one way to energize student learning and bridge the state’s glaring education achievement gap is to make attending college a plausible financial expectation for all students.

Something might be in the works.

Rep. Rena Moran (DFL-St. Paul) sponsors HF2133 that would require the state’s education commissioner along with the president of the University of Minnesota and chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system to create an advisory task force to make recommendations about establishing an endowment to pay tuition for any qualified Minnesota student admitted to a state higher education institute.

Yende Anderson, community program specialist with the Council on Black Minnesotans, testifies before the House Education Policy Committee in support of HF2133, which would establish a task force on post-secondary tuition endowment. Photo by Paul Battaglia

The task force would be charged with reviewing similar programs, providing expenditure estimates and exploring possible funding sources. A report would be due by the end of this year.

Approved Tuesday by the House Education Policy Committee, the bill was referred to the House Higher Education Finance and Policy Committee. There is no Senate companion.

Currently, for many students, higher education is unreachable, Mchie argued.

But in 24 areas around the United States, community leaders are examining the creation of endowment funds, he said. “We should be No. 25.”

Supporters point to The Kalamazoo Promise, a privately funded scholarship program in Kalamazoo, Mich. that began in 2005. It almost guarantees higher education scholarships to graduates of the Kalamazoo Public Schools, as a prime example of a scholarship initiative.

In the first five years its existence, private donors contributed $25 million for scholarships for more than 2,000 graduates, according to the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research of Kalamazoo.

Noting many forms of scholarships already exist, Rep. Ernie Leidiger (R-Mayer) questioned why any legislative action is necessary.

Rep. Jason Isaacson (DFL-Shoreview) styled the proposal as a commendable mix of community and government.

“The idea bubbled up from a community process,” said Yende Anderson, community program specialist for the Council on Black Minnesotans.