Each year approximately 16,000 students graduate from Broward County High Schools. Thousands of the high school students receive different grants that help pay for their college tuition.
Approximately 800 of those graduating students fail to go to college because the grant money that is pledged to them does not pay for the full amount of the tuition and the student cannot afford to pay for the "gap" or the difference. These 800 students and their families are at the bottom of the ladder of the financial scale.
Therefore, I would like to propose a public/private partnership pilot program for these 800 students that would fill the "gap" and allow these students to go to college. In other words, if a student wanted to go to Broward College and the grant money was $1000 short of the full tuition, this pilot program would pay the $1000 or the difference allowing the student to enroll.
Based on my discussion with Broward College executive staff and its president, approximately $2 million dollars is needed to fill the "gap."
This proposal and pilot program would only be for Broward County High School graduating students who attend Broward College. I would propose raising $1 million from the private sector sources and request the County to match.
Broward County Vice-Mayor Mark Bogen has already contacted the leaders in the private sector to determine their interest in this program and will report such results at the June 5th meeting. |