By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – According to Gov. Mitch Daniels, relying on information from guidance counselors and other school officials across the state, the percentage of students from Indiana households where the parents have not earned college degrees, who believe they can go on to college, is “very low – less than a third.

“It is known to every person in this room that the prospects today of a young man or woman holding a family-supporting job with only a high school education or – perish the thought – less, are very low,” he told trustees, faculty and administrators attending the annual statewide H. Kent Weldon Conference for Higher Education in Indianapolis last week.

Daniels said he wants to take steps to guarantee every recent Indiana high school graduate two years of paid tuition at Ivy Tech Community College, or transfer that equivalent funding – approximately $6,000 right now – to a postsecondary institution of the graduate’s choice. This would be aimed at students from families earning up to the state’s median income of about $54,000, and possibly higher.

“It’s that gap that kind of finds itself between rising college costs and not having little enough (income) to qualify elsewhere,” said Stanley Jones, Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education.
He explained Daniels had a different proposal two years ago with the same goal of making college education more affordable for those who graduate high school. Over the last 10 years, he said tuition has doubled across the nation, at the rate of about 7 percent a year; in that time, Daniels added it has gone up 2.5 times faster than Hoosier incomes.

Jones said this is something the state’s General Assembly would have to vote on, possibly in its 2009 session. Daniels has not specified how much this might cost the state each year or where this kind of funding would come from, but Jones said possibly, lottery proceeds.

Jane Jankowski, with the governor’s office, added Daniels has not come up with a dollar figure because he is still trying to determine who specifically might be served by this kind of help. Part of the problem, too, is not yet knowing from where the funding would come and, by extension, how much would be available.
“If we can go beyond (the proposed $54,000 income ceiling), then that’s what his intention is,” she said.

Jones explained Daniels will spend the rest of the year talking with higher education officials, legislators and the public. “He wants other people’s ideas and suggestions, so he’s gathering opinions,” he said.

Nationwide, 45 percent of students are enrolled in community colleges, according to Tom McCool, executive director of marketing and communications for Ivy Tech. In Indiana, that number is 21 percent.

“We do support the plan, because we want community college to be accessible and affordable to Indiana, as well,” he said – adding, however, “I think we would have to have some kind of funding to make that happen.”

Two years ago, he said Ivy Tech decided to hold its annual tuition increases to the rate of inflation only. At least part of this was to make community college and associate degrees attractive to Hoosiers.

Jones said there are other states doing similar things. California, for instance, long offered free community college to all its high school graduates; only recently, he said, did it start charging each student a fee of $600 per year to help defray expenses. Florida offers a similar grant to graduates who get good grades.
He does not know if Daniels’ plan would include recent GED recipients or even how far back “recent” will be defined.

He said, though, “I think our commission will be very supportive of his proposal.”

Daniels pointed out the gap between new job opportunities in Indiana and the skill level of its workers is widening, and while not every new employee may need a four-year or graduate degree, some training beyond high school will be necessary. He also said while he commends Indiana State and Purdue universities for steps they are taking to make tuition affordable to more students, he wants to know what else postsecondary institutions in Indiana can do to help even more go to college.

“We can’t do everything all the time,” he said, “so we look for those high-leverage opportunities, those big steps (like this).”

This farm news was published in the April 23, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.