CommissionerSam.com

Oregon Opportunity Grants and Aspire Benfit from the Legislative Session

With Sam's advocacy, this is the first year the City of Portland has added higher education to its Legislative Package. Several of the higher ed priorities have been successful; including increased funding for the Oregon Student Opportunity Grants, and establishing Aspire as an officially recognized State Program. Both of these programs are run out of the Oregon Student Assistance Commission.

Aspire is a highly successful mentoring program, training and coordinating volunteers to help high school students be successful getting Aspire Mentoring Programinto college and applying for scholarships and financial assistance. Beyond being recognized as an official state program, Aspire has been allocated $700,000. These funds will allow Aspire programs to expand from the current 83 high schools in Oregon, to 115 schools next year. $300,000 of the allocation will serve as match, for school districts and high schools to develop their new programs.

I volunteered with Aspire five years ago and was impressed with the program's ability to encourage and assist students who didn't necessarily see themselves going on to college. One of my students came from a family who had emigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria when she was a baby. Her parents weren't familiar with our higher education system and, while their English was good, FAFSA (financial assistance), scholarship, college applications, and all the related forms and details can singe the synapses of anyone. In my case, since I was learning this information to help my daughter, why not use the knowledge to help some other kids as well? It's great to watch this program continue to expand.

College is ExpensiveThe Oregon Opportunity Grants will offer $107 million to financially needy undergraduate Oregon residents over the next two years. The Legislature passed and the Governor signed into law an allocation of $35 million to be distributed in the first year, and $72 million to be distributed in the second year of the 2007-09 biennium.

The legislation also directed changes in the calculations for who will be awarded grants and how much the student will receive. Previously, only those from very low income families qualified: a family of four earning $32,000/year did not qualify...because they "earned too much". While the calculations are still a work in progress, the new formulas will stretch the range of family income to allow those closer to middle income to receive benefits.

College is expensive; worth it, but expensive. These are good moves by our Governor and Legislature to help our youth and families prepare for family wage jobs and careers, as well as to reap the intangible benefits of college education.

It's good for Oregonians and it's good for Oregon.