Minnesota Private College Council releases Education Agenda for the Common Good
Given that Minnesota’s need for college-educated graduates will soon exceed the supply, the Minnesota Private College Council (MPCC) has released a $327 million education agenda that aims to put more students on a path to college. The agenda focuses on two key areas: preparing more high school students to pursue additional education and on helping keep college affordable for low- and middle-income students.
“State policymakers can help put more students on a path to college success. The state’s competitiveness depends on it,” said David Etzwiler, senior director, the Medtronic Foundation and government affairs, Medtronic, and chair of MPCC’s Public Policy Committee.
Preparing more high school students
To prepare more high school students for additional education, policy makers are asked to target students whose parents have not completed college themselves. Less likely than their peers to prepare for and enroll in post-high school education, these “first-generation” students would be supported with better access to proven support programs and offers of new state scholarships that would reward hard work in high school.
“It is increasingly clear that all students need to continue their educations after high school, whether that is at a technical program, community college, public university or one of our liberal arts institutions. Yet many students don’t even complete high school itself, let alone graduate prepared to continue their educations,” said Brian Rosenberg, Macalester College president and chair of the MPCC board. “Everyone will benefit if the state acts to address this challenge.”
Not yet tried in other states, the proposal to set up Minnesota First Generation Academic Scholarships targets the state’s limited resources where they can have the greatest benefit for the state as a whole. The share of high school students whose parents haven’t completed college is expected to grow to more than 40 percent of high school students in the coming years.
The scholarships would build up as the students take and pass rigorous courses, starting in 9th grade. When they graduate, these first-generation students could have up to $5,000 in a 529 Plan to pay for any post-high school education. While policymakers would need to further define elements of this proposal, MPCC estimates that the proposal would cost the state $100 million over the biennium.
Helping keep college affordable
The other focus for private colleges is improving the ability of low- and middle-income Minnesotans to afford to continue their educations after high school. Along with improving support for student parents who are juggling childcare and tuition costs, the agenda asks policymakers to recommit to need-based state aid for college students, through the State Grant Program.
“Increasing need-based state aid for college students is the best, most efficient way to help keep college affordable and target limited state dollars,” said David B. Laird, Jr., MPCC president.
The value of the state’s average need-based award has been shrinking. For students at Minnesota’s public and private colleges and universities, over the last five years the average State Grant award has fallen 14 percent, in inflation-adjusted dollars. And as the State Grant support has become a far smaller piece of undergraduate financial aid, students have relied increasingly on grants from institutions and student loans.
With a $191 million recommendation for new spending on need-based aid over the next biennium, this is the largest portion of the suggested new spending in the MPCC agenda. Most students who receive this aid attend public colleges and universities; only 13 percent attend one of the private, nonprofit institutions that are MPCC members.
“This agenda puts the state’s needs front and center,” Laird said. “Without new state effort, the number of college graduates is forecast to fall 12 percent. Meanwhile, our economy will require twice as many graduates. Now is the time for Minnesota to act on an education agenda that focuses on our common good.”
More about the Education Agenda for the Common Good
Agenda at a glance
Increase academic readiness and graduation rates, especially first-generation students.
- Expand proven access programs
- Create new academic scholarships
- Generate greater public awareness
Improve the ability of low-and middle-income Minnesotans to afford postsecondary education.
- Increase need-based state aid
- Improve childcare support for student parents