Tuition-free: Indiana's 21st Century Scholars program could double this year
Arika HerronAt its heart, the goal of Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars Program is to lift kids out of poverty through the power of education – to help them reach opportunities that will put them on a new trajectory for their adult lives.
For those who enroll in the program data shows it has been largely successful. Every year, though, thousands of eligible students miss the window to sign up and lock themselves out of an opportunity to have their college tuition covered. Many end up not seeking any kind of post-secondary education, which is something Indiana just can't afford right now, state leaders say.
So, state leaders are pushing for a change that would give all eligible students the chance to complete the program, which started in 1990, and earn a tuition-free college education.
Success story
If there were a perfect example of what the 21st Century Scholars Program aspires to, Zac Jackson might be it.
Kids from low-income families who complete the program – maintaining good grades, keeping out of trouble and doing activities designed to prepare kids for college, like visiting a campus and taking a career assessment – will get up to four years of tuition and mandatory fees at one of the state’s public colleges or universities covered.
Students show they can succeed in college if they have the means to get there. In exchange, the state covers their tuition, hoping for an eventual return on that investment through a better quality of life for those Hoosiers, higher educational attainment rates and more tax dollars from the higher-paying jobs that data shows come with a college degree.
Jackson joked recently, while presenting Gov. Eric Holcomb’s proposed budget to a committee of the Indiana General Assembly, that he’s probably the highest-ranking 21st Century Scholar in state government. In 2019, Holcomb appointed Jackson to be his state budget director.
This year’s budget proposal includes the recommendation to automatically enroll all eligible students in the 21st Century Scholars Program – a policy priority of Holcomb’s that could double the number of students who benefit from the program that changed the trajectory of Jackson’s life three decades ago.
“I do take a lot of pride in the program and how it really worked for me,” Jackson said in an interview with IndyStar. “So, it is a special opportunity to be a part of the expansion.”
Jackson grew up in southwest Indiana, the child of a single mom. When he was young they moved around a lot, but eventually settled in Bicknell, a city of a few thousand people in Knox County, living in a rental home owned by his uncle.
“When you wanted to do shopping you either drove an hour and 15 minutes south to Evansville or an hour north to Terre Haute,” he said.
Bicknell was a small town with small schools, but Jackson was practically in the backyard of Vincennes University, the largely two-year public school. Thirty years later, he doesn’t exactly remember enrolling in the 21st Century Scholars Program but he does remember that Vincennes did a good job of checking in on local kids who were part of it throughout their high school years.
'Ticket out of poverty'
After Jackson graduated from North Knox High School, it was an easy choice to start at Vincennes.
“I knew for a long time that my personal ticket out of poverty was going to be an education,” he said. “And still I think for so many people, education is their ticket out of poverty.”
After three semesters, he earned an associate degree and transferred to the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville. He commuted for the first semester and then moved there for the last two years.
He graduated in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree, about $10,000 in student loan debt to cover costs that the program doesn’t – living expenses, textbooks and other supplies – and a graduate fellowship in state government. He eventually earned a Master of Public Affairs from IUPUI and, later, an MBA from Butler University.
Jackson says he remembers thinking − probably around the time he was in middle school and qualifying for 21st Century Scholars - “man, if I can ever make $30,000, I will have it made.”
When he started at the state budget agency in 2005, his salary was $41,000. Over the intervening 18 years, Jackson worked his way to the top of the agency. Now, he makes more than $165,000, according to state records.
By all measures, the program worked for Jackson. He has a successful career, a well-paying job and 529 college savings plans for his two children, a fourth-grader and a seventh-grader. Opportunities for success will be easier for his kids than they were for him, Jackson said.
Each year, though, there are thousands of kids who miss out on the opportunities that the 21st Century Scholars program could provide. Right now, the program requires that eligible families − those that qualify for free or reduced-price meals based on household income − enroll their kids by the end of eighth grade.
Fewer than half of those eligible students actually enroll.
Changing the policy to automatically enroll all eligible students could change the lives of thousands more students, said Chris Lowery, Indiana’s commissioner for higher education. Each year, there are between 15,000 and 20,000 eligible eighth-graders enrolled in Indiana’s public and accredited private schools.
Students would still have to complete all elements of the program throughout high school in order to have their tuition covered. Right now, approximately two-thirds of participants complete the program, Lowery said.
With the expected increase in participants, the Commission for Higher Education estimates it would cost the state an additional $150 million for each cohort of students, though that cost wouldn’t be felt for several years – until this year’s eighth graders begin enrolling in college.
That’s not the number Lowery wants to talk about, though. Or at least not the only one.
“To me, the real impact on the state is on economic and social mobility for these students,” Lowery said.
The Commission estimates that the return on investment for the state would be more than covered by the expected increase in tax revenues thousands more college-educated Hoosiers. Beyond that, though, Lowery says there will be savings in public health and other assistance programs. The upside, he said, could be as high as 10 times the original investment.
The 21st Century Scholars program has been a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy higher education landscape in Indiana. While the state has plenty of well-respected colleges, universities and other post-secondary education programs, far too few Hoosiers choose them. Last summer, the Commmision reported that the state’s college-going rate had dropped to its lowest point in recent history.
In five years, the rate declined a total of 12 percentage points, falling from 65% in 2015 to just 53% in 2020. The latest data shows an acceleration in the already incremental decline in the percentage of students going directly from high school to some form of college – everything from less than one-year certificates up through four-year degrees.
The drop poses an enormous challenge for the state, which was already behind on educational attainment goals. Several years ago, Holcomb charged the state to equip at least 60% of its adults with some level of post-secondary education. Currently, that number is just over 48%.
So it shouldn’t be surprising, then, to see Holcomb back the 21st Century expansion – one of the solutions that the Commission and Lowery started pitching on the same day the disastrous college-going report was released. Kids who participate in 21st Century go to college at higher rates then their low-income peers who aren’t in the program and are more likely to persist through to college graduation.
Still, Lowery said it was an exciting moment when he heard that Holcomb would back the idea in his legislative agenda, budget and annual State of the State address. And the person who made the call to tell him?
It was Jackson.
“I literally could tell you where I was standing,” Lowery said. “It was very special to get that call from him.”
The business community is on board, too. The Indiana Chamber included the proposal in their legislative priorities for the year. Democrats in the Statehouse have filed bills to codify the change and Republican leaders have signaled support.
"The $150 million price tag, like everything else, you got to roll that into the budget and see where we get to at the end of the year," Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said during a press availability Thursday, "but the idea is really nice."
There are three months left in the legislative session, but Lowery said he’s confident there is enough momentum and support that the new enrollment process could begin as soon as this year, for current eighth-grade students.
Call IndyStar state government & politics reporter Arika Herron at 317-201-5620 or email her at Arika.Herron@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter: @ArikaHerron.