The Washington State College Bound Scholarship is a very valuable promise the state legislature makes to low income students in Washington State. If they graduate from high school, with at least a 2.0 grade point average, stay out of serious trouble, and get into a post secondary institution, the state will make tuition financial affordable, with grants, not loans. There is a catch. Students must sign up for the program by the end of their eight grade year. When this program started, nearly half the students in the state were missing this opportunity because they did not sign up in time.
THA resolved to sign up 100 percent of its eighth graders every year. Initiatially, THA got it done by simply adding the College Bound Scholarship application to the paperwork it asks its families to fill out as part of their participation in THA’s housing programs.
In recent years, THA has been able to subordinate its enrollment efforts to that of Tacoma Public Schools, which now signs up 100% of eligible eighth graders every year.
College Bound Scholarship Program sending low-income students to college at a higher rate than other low-income students.
Low-income children who participate in Washington’s College Bound scholarship program are going to college at nearly the same rate as their richer classmates and well ahead of other poor children who did not sign up, according to a report by the BERC Group.