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NEWS | January 2007

This page includes all articles in the January issue of NEWS. Return to summary of articles.

Policy agenda meets favorable reaction
Legislative Action Network helps students and advocates be heard
What does it mean to be a first-generation student?
Reason four (10 reasons Minnesota needs private colleges)
BRIEFS

Policy agenda meets favorable reaction

The Minnesota Private College Council’s Education Agenda for the Common Good is receiving growing support from the community. Released in November, the agenda calls for state legislators and the governor to increase the number of students who are ready and able to move into college and succeed.

The agenda includes these sensible steps:

1. an information campaign prior to high school for parents and students to increase awareness of the importance of being on a path to college,
2. a new scholarship for high school students whose parents have not completed college and who take and pass rigorous college prep courses,
3. expansion of existing, proven programs that assist those same “first-generation” students in making a successful transition from high school to college,
4. additional investment in need-based financial aid (through the State Grant Program) to help keep college affordable for those most in need of assistance, and
5. restoration of critical financial support to single parents with children who require daycare while their parents attend college.

Earlier this month a Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder editorial referred to the MPCC agenda this way:

“Here is a plan that could substantially improve the prospects for low-and middle-income students hit hardest by rising tuition and reduced federal aid. Linked with stronger college preparation at the high school level and more childcare assistance for college students, this is a proposal we can enthusiastically endorse. Think of thousands more of our children better prepared for college and better able to afford it without piling up debt, and you’ll see why we must pay close attention to how the Council’s recommendations fare in our newly Democratic Legislature.”

According to its president, Val Vargas, “the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Minnesota is very selective in supporting agendas not its own, but we must endorse the Education Agenda for the Common Good 2007. It is essential that we do more to prepare our young people for education and careers beyond high school. This agenda offers a comprehensive plan to achieve this aim.”

And from Lester Collins, executive director of the State of Minnesota Council on Black Minnesotans:
"Broadly speaking, the Minnesota Private College Council's 2007 Education Agenda is the right set of challenges and strategies, at the right time, targeted at the right populations to move the State forward."

In December, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce endorsed increased funding for the State Grant Program. Editorials in the Pioneer Press and Star Tribune also supported the agenda (see story).

In the coming months, the Council will continue to promote this agenda among policymakers. Working together, we can put the state on a solid footing for the years ahead. Learn more about the MPCC’s Education Agenda for the Common Good 2007.

Legislative Action Network helps students and advocates be heard

The Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) has long advocated for a strong program of need-based aid for low- and middle-income college students. In Minnesota, this aid is distributed through the State Grant Program, which benefits 71,000 students a year. In the last five years, the average State Grant award has fallen 14 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. In 2007, MPCC is asking policymakers to increase need-based aid; this is the most efficient way to target limited state funds and help keep college affordable to those who need assistance.

One of the ways we reach policymakers is through the Legislative Action Network — an online tool that makes it easy to contact your legislator. Those who sign up for the network receive periodic “Action Alert” e-mails during the legislative session, asking them to send a letter to their legislators requesting support for our agenda.

In response to a December Action Alert, more than 200 people contacted Governor Pawlenty to urge increased funding for the State Grant Program. Here are excerpts from a handful:

“I am a senior at Concordia College in Moorhead. I have personally had a difficult time paying for college this year because the financial support I received from the government was not as much as in the past. In order to make ends meet, my father has gotten a second job in addition to his full-time county financial work job."
—Kristle Moen, Concordia College

"Contributions to my own education at St. Olaf College from the Minnesota State Grant Program were essential to my completing my college education and beginning a promising career in education and computer science."
—David Wenzel ’72, St. Olaf College

“I attend Macalester College in Saint Paul and I receive financial aid from this Grant Program. My education would not be possible without this grant, and I truly believe that investing in the future is the only way for the United States to remain the world leader it is today. In recent years, rising tuition has made it more and more difficult for students to receive the education that they deserve.… I believe that investing in human capital development is the single best way to improve future living standards for all of Minnesota.”
—Katherine Lim, Macalester College

Sign up to participate in the Legislative Action Network, which enables you to find out more about the issues and share your views with legislators.

What does it mean to be a first-generation student?

The policy agenda presented by the Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) includes an academic scholarship initiative targeting first-generation students in Minnesota. But who is a first-generation student and why should this agenda target them?

Definitions for the term “first-generation” student vary. The federal TRiO programs, which promote college access, define first-generation students as individuals whose parents did not complete a baccalaureate degree. In academic research, the term often refers to college students whose parents have never been enrolled in postsecondary education — meaning their highest educational attainment was a high school degree or the equivalent. The difference in definitions may seem minimal, but 37 percent of Minnesotans aged 25 or older never enrolled in college, and an additional 32 percent had not completed a bachelor’s degree by 2005, according to the American Community Survey. That is a combined total of 69 percent of residents.

Educational attainment of parents is slowly rising. The Minnesota Department of Health estimates of live births in 2005 indicate that 37.2 percent of mothers and 39.4 percent of fathers were college graduates — an increase of 3 percent for each group since 2000. From the statistics we can estimate that 60 percent of Minnesota’s newborns — who are likely high school graduates in 2023 — can be classified as first-generation students under the TRiO definition.

While parental educational attainment is important in the educational attainment of children, there is much the system can do to support and encourage first-generation students. MPCC policy initiatives specifically address two needs:

1. Increase the academic rigor and college prep coursework of all Minnesota students.
   A National Center for Education Statistics report found that first-generation students are less prepared academically for college, as demonstrated by their lower rates of taking college prep math courses in high school, their lower achievement test scores and their lower college entrance examination scores. Improving on all these measures is critical to increasing the education level of the state’s human capital.
2. Provide more need-based financial aid.
   First-generation students are more likely than their peers to have lower incomes. They are also more likely to delay postsecondary enrollment, begin at a two-year institution, attend part time and drop out temporarily or permanently — all events that may indicate the lack of financial resources to pay for college. Providing sufficient need-based financial aid makes college more attainable for these students.

By preparing more high school students to pursue additional education and helping keep college affordable for low- and middle-income students, we can maintain and strengthen Minnesota’s economy.

Reason four (10 reasons Minnesota needs private colleges)

Attracting brain power

• As an importer of undergraduate students, we attract more international students and more students from other states than do either the state universities or the University of Minnesota.
• Two-thirds of our graduates, regardless of their “home” state, stay in Minnesota, adding to the state’s skilled workforce and tax base.

BRIEFS

• The National Conference of State Legislatures in its report, Transforming Higher Education  suggests that the U.S. can do much better with higher education policy and calls on legislatures and citizens for reform.
• The new Science Museum of Minnesota exhibit, Race: Are We So Different? is powerful, challenging and on display through May 6.
• Jeffrey Highland, Ph.D., has been named interim president at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.
• A recent American Council on Education poll shows a gap between what policymakers and the public think about U.S. competitiveness and math and science education.
• The updated MPCC publication, Diversifying as we Grow (2006) reveals a more than 75 percent increase in enrollment of freshmen of color since 1996.
• Keep these relative quantities in mind when hearing state budget figures: one million seconds equals 11 days; one billion seconds equals 32 years.