Lifting Aspriations, Building Our Future

Last week Laura Ofobike, one of the editorial writers at the Akron Beacon Journal, took a deeper look at two big ideas -- one from Gov. Strickland and one from Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic -- to lower the cost of college and increase the number of Ohioans going to college.

Laura raises several important points, including:

Like any scholarship scheme, the Seniors to Sophomores and the 21st-century Akron plan would require academic eligibility standards. College falls outside the scope of a good many students not so much because they are not capable but because they have not been groomed to get there.

She highlights one program that does help groom disadvantaged students to get ready for college called Project GRAD. The program describes its mission this way:

Helping children from low income families earn their high school diploma is not charity.  It is a way to ensure the future of our communities.

The Dashboard of Economic Indicators provides persuasive evidence that a region's economic health is determined, in part, by its ability to create opportunities for all of its residents to share in economic opportunities. Advance Northeast Ohio calls that growth through racial and economic inclusion.

Laura wrote:

Last summer, Eric Bettinger of Case Western Reserve University evaluated the four Project GRAD programs in Ohio, including Akron's at Buchtel High School and its feeder middle and primary schools. The findings were illuminating. Graduation rates in the Project GRAD schools have improved comparatively, as have math scores in the fourth grade. Truancy and discliplinary rates have fallen. Teacher attendance has improved.

I would say a program such as Project GRAD deserves attention as a model companion piece, capable of providing the support structure so crucial to nurturing the idea of higher education.

Perhaps now is the time to expand Northeast Ohio's participation in Project GRAD?