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Ohio Governor Eliminates All Financial Assistance for Career College Students

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 20 /PRNewswire/ — Thousands of students who hope to earn associate degrees offered by 37 career colleges across Ohio may not be able to afford to begin or continue with their education. That’s because the new $50.5 billion 2-year state budget signed into law Friday by Governor Ted Strickland eliminates all state financial assistance.

For the past 2 years, the Ohio College Opportunity Grant provided needs-based assistance averaging $2,871 to more than 22,500. Some grants totaled nearly $4,000.

“Eliminating all of their financial assistance will result in disastrous consequences for thousands of career college students and their families,” said R. David Rankin, Executive Director of the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools. “Surely, it will further damage Ohio’s still plunging economy. This move is entirely opposite of the Governor’s and Chancellor Fingerhut’s stated goals of helping to educate more students age 25 and older and improving Ohio’s dismal ranking of 38th in the nation for citizens with an associate degree.”

While career college students have lost all state assistance, those attending taxpayer-supported and private, non-profit schools will continue to receive money from state government, though at reduced levels. Since January – when Governor Strickland first made his intentions known – career colleges have been arguing their students deserve to be treated the same as all Ohio college students. “Career college students are somehow ‘different’ or less- worthy than students who attend other Ohio colleges?” Mr. Rankin asks.

If “different” is measured as “more successful,” outcome- oriented career colleges and the students they graduate certainly are, as compared to all other higher educational institutions in Ohio:

• A large majority of career college students is already employed in full or part-time jobs as they pursue their associate degrees. On average, they’re 26 years old, quite older than most Ohio college students. 72% are women – many are single mothers with one or more children – and more than 30% are minorities.
• Ohio career colleges graduate students at a rate better than 2.5 times that of taxpayer-funded community colleges.
• Needs-based financial assistance for career college students clearly helps reduce Ohio’s notorious “brain drain:” Nearly all will live and work in Ohio towns after they graduate – most in the same towns in which they currently live.
• 80% get well-paying jobs within 90 days of graduation. Career college graduates contribute more than $700 million in income and wages to the state and local economies – with each graduating class contributing an additional $98.4 million more than they would have otherwise earned without their degrees. Based on a 10.4 percent tax rate, that $700 million-plus translates to about $73.6 million EACH YEAR in state and local revenues.
• In addition to the economic contributions of graduates, career colleges themselves contribute about $453 million a year to the Ohio economy and employ more than 5,000 workers. Their annual payrolls total $146 million and they spend more than $290 million annually for goods and services.

The Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools believes student financial assistance should be available to all who qualify based upon financial need. Students should be allowed to use financial assistance to earn a degree at any accredited college in the state, whether a public, private non-profit or career college. Students should have a right to choose whatever college or university they determine is best for each of them.

“We very much understand the dire financial situation that Ohio is suffering through and the state’s need to cut costs,” Mr. Rankin acknowledges. “But the data clearly show that financial aid to career college students is not a cost but a solid investment which provides highly positive, measurable returns every year. This draconian cut simply makes no sense.”

To understand how this decision affects each student’s current financial assistance situation, the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and School urges students to contact financial aid officers at their schools and suggests they monitor the SaveOCOG.org Web site and Facebook page for updates.

SOURCE Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools

Originally published by Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools.

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