Dive Brief:
- An Oregon lawmaker is proposing that some high school graduates get free tuition at community college.
- Preliminary figures suggest that the program could cost about $250 million if about 30,000 students took advantage of it.
- One option being discussed for funding is getting a waiver to use federal Pell Grant money.
Dive Insight:
Sen. Mark Hass says his proposal would cost money, but so would not implementing it: “We have to recognize that ultimately it will cost us more to deal with those people in the social service system, or worse, in the correctional system,” he said. There could be another payoff too: A legislative committee reviewed data that showed that people who earned a higher degree generated more tax revenue for the state.