Virginia Lawmakers Consider Bill to Encourage Students to Start at 2-Year Colleges
By JOSH KELLER
In an effort to absorb Virginia's growing college-age population, state legislators are considering a bill that would give students who start out at community colleges a financial bonus after they transfer to a public four-year institution.
The grant program, proposed by two leading lawmakers, would allow qualifying transfer students to pay the same tuition and fees at public four-year institutions that they paid at a community college. Each student who transferred to an in-state private college after graduating from a community college would initially receive a voucher worth about $2,150 a year.
The measure is part of a broader effort to encourage more students to start their college careers at two-year colleges, a shift that lawmakers estimate would help accommodate an expected 20-percent to 25-percent increase in college enrollment in the state over the next six years.
Proponents say the legislation could also help attract low-income students to the state's four-year colleges, which recently increased the amount of their financial aid to needy students and guaranteed spots on some campuses to some community-college graduates with good grades.
In the 2005-6 academic year, only 7.6 percent of undergraduates at the flagship University of Virginia received federal Pell Grants -- the lowest proportion among the nation's elite public colleges, according to a Chronicle analysis. Pell Grants typically are awarded to students from families with incomes of $40,000 or less. A university survey found that more than 60 percent of last year's undergraduates came from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or more.
"A lot of students are self-selecting out because they just don't believe it's going to be affordable," said Yvonne B. Hubbard, director of student financial services at the university. "What this does is allow us to say, 'Here's how you can do it, here's how it's going to work.'"
In fact, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Lansdowne, Va., found that in 2002, only 8 percent of all entering students at the nation's most-elite public universities, including the University of Virginia, had started their college educations at two-year institutions. An even smaller share of community-college transfers who enrolled at top colleges were from low-income households, according to the foundation's research.
Income and Grade Requirements
Higher-education officials in Virginia estimate that 1,700 of the state's students would be eligible for the proposed program in its first year, at a cost of $3.8-million. In order to qualify, students would have to graduate from community college with a 3.0 grade-point average or higher and come from families with incomes of less than 150 percent of a state or local median. Depending on where the applicants live, that would put the maximum qualifying income at $75,000 to $135,000 per year.
A nearly identical measure was approved unanimously last year by the State Senate but died in the House of Delegates after becoming entangled in a debate over funds for transportation. College officials say the increased attention being paid to the issues of affordability and ease of transfer have helped the proposal's chances this time around.
"Politically, the planets are lined up," said Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College system.
The program would also help the state's 23 community colleges retain students who transfer before finishing an associate degree, he said.
"It creates an incentive to perform well and an incentive to stick it out and graduate," Mr. DuBois said. "Most transfer students now leave before graduation, and they would not be eligible. It gives us some more glue."
Given the exclusivity and expense of the state's major institutions, which include Virginia Tech, and the College of William and Mary, community colleges are an ideal "on ramp" for students who might otherwise bow out of higher education altogether, Mr. DuBois said.
"We have a reality in Virginia where at least in three or four of these public institutions, you have to be graduating at the very top of your high-school class," he said. "Now there's another way to get there, guaranteed."
Mixed Responses From One Scholar
Alicia C. Dowd, an assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California who has studied the transfer patterns of community-college students, said she had mixed feelings about the Virginia proposal. While the attention on transfer students' financial aid is welcome, she said, the bill's specifics suggest that the plan may end up ignoring the needs of many poorer and part-time community-college students.
"If it were more inclusive, I would say I was very excited by this legislation," she said.
For example, the bill's grade-point-average requirement, she said, might discourage students from majoring in difficult but important subjects, like physics. And the bill's current language seems to call for students to transfer to four-year colleges immediately after receiving their two-year associate degrees, a requirement at odds with the schedules of the majority of community-college students, who must also deal with the demands of family and work.
"This could be a really progressive piece of legislation," Ms. Dowd said, "or it could be very typical of what's going on today with various strategies to move dollars from low-income students over to middle-income students."
State Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., a Republican who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, is a sponsor of the bill. He said it would serve both groups of students, providing an affordable safety valve for the large number of college-age students coming in the next few years.
Mr. Callahan said he might consider allowing students to delay enrollment at four-year colleges for six months or a year, but not longer.
"The other problem is the students stay in college five, six years before they graduate instead of the normal four years," the lawmaker said. "We would prefer to have them out in four."
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Copyright © 2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
In an effort to absorb Virginia's growing college-age population, state legislators are considering a bill that would give students who start out at community colleges a financial bonus after they transfer to a public four-year institution.
The grant program, proposed by two leading lawmakers, would allow qualifying transfer students to pay the same tuition and fees at public four-year institutions that they paid at a community college. Each student who transferred to an in-state private college after graduating from a community college would initially receive a voucher worth about $2,150 a year.
The measure is part of a broader effort to encourage more students to start their college careers at two-year colleges, a shift that lawmakers estimate would help accommodate an expected 20-percent to 25-percent increase in college enrollment in the state over the next six years.
Proponents say the legislation could also help attract low-income students to the state's four-year colleges, which recently increased the amount of their financial aid to needy students and guaranteed spots on some campuses to some community-college graduates with good grades.
In the 2005-6 academic year, only 7.6 percent of undergraduates at the flagship University of Virginia received federal Pell Grants -- the lowest proportion among the nation's elite public colleges, according to a Chronicle analysis. Pell Grants typically are awarded to students from families with incomes of $40,000 or less. A university survey found that more than 60 percent of last year's undergraduates came from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or more.
"A lot of students are self-selecting out because they just don't believe it's going to be affordable," said Yvonne B. Hubbard, director of student financial services at the university. "What this does is allow us to say, 'Here's how you can do it, here's how it's going to work.'"
In fact, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Lansdowne, Va., found that in 2002, only 8 percent of all entering students at the nation's most-elite public universities, including the University of Virginia, had started their college educations at two-year institutions. An even smaller share of community-college transfers who enrolled at top colleges were from low-income households, according to the foundation's research.
Income and Grade Requirements
Higher-education officials in Virginia estimate that 1,700 of the state's students would be eligible for the proposed program in its first year, at a cost of $3.8-million. In order to qualify, students would have to graduate from community college with a 3.0 grade-point average or higher and come from families with incomes of less than 150 percent of a state or local median. Depending on where the applicants live, that would put the maximum qualifying income at $75,000 to $135,000 per year.
A nearly identical measure was approved unanimously last year by the State Senate but died in the House of Delegates after becoming entangled in a debate over funds for transportation. College officials say the increased attention being paid to the issues of affordability and ease of transfer have helped the proposal's chances this time around.
"Politically, the planets are lined up," said Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College system.
The program would also help the state's 23 community colleges retain students who transfer before finishing an associate degree, he said.
"It creates an incentive to perform well and an incentive to stick it out and graduate," Mr. DuBois said. "Most transfer students now leave before graduation, and they would not be eligible. It gives us some more glue."
Given the exclusivity and expense of the state's major institutions, which include Virginia Tech, and the College of William and Mary, community colleges are an ideal "on ramp" for students who might otherwise bow out of higher education altogether, Mr. DuBois said.
"We have a reality in Virginia where at least in three or four of these public institutions, you have to be graduating at the very top of your high-school class," he said. "Now there's another way to get there, guaranteed."
Mixed Responses From One Scholar
Alicia C. Dowd, an assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California who has studied the transfer patterns of community-college students, said she had mixed feelings about the Virginia proposal. While the attention on transfer students' financial aid is welcome, she said, the bill's specifics suggest that the plan may end up ignoring the needs of many poorer and part-time community-college students.
"If it were more inclusive, I would say I was very excited by this legislation," she said.
For example, the bill's grade-point-average requirement, she said, might discourage students from majoring in difficult but important subjects, like physics. And the bill's current language seems to call for students to transfer to four-year colleges immediately after receiving their two-year associate degrees, a requirement at odds with the schedules of the majority of community-college students, who must also deal with the demands of family and work.
"This could be a really progressive piece of legislation," Ms. Dowd said, "or it could be very typical of what's going on today with various strategies to move dollars from low-income students over to middle-income students."
State Del. Vincent F. Callahan Jr., a Republican who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee, is a sponsor of the bill. He said it would serve both groups of students, providing an affordable safety valve for the large number of college-age students coming in the next few years.
Mr. Callahan said he might consider allowing students to delay enrollment at four-year colleges for six months or a year, but not longer.
"The other problem is the students stay in college five, six years before they graduate instead of the normal four years," the lawmaker said. "We would prefer to have them out in four."
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Copyright © 2006 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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