Submitted
By Carolyn Weir
Editor’s note: This commentary is by Carolyn Weir of Weybridge. She is executive director of the McClure Foundation, an affiliate of the Vermont Community Foundation that works to close opportunity gaps in the state by strengthening college and career training pathways to Vermont’s most promising jobs.
Young people deserve to imagine futures they can create for themselves. As a state, we can create the conditions for their future planning by making post-secondary education the easy choice.
In mid-December, VTDigger reported that pandemic-era high schoolers in Vermont say they are less likely to pursue higher education. The data comes from the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation’s valuable, long-running survey of high school seniors. It reveals that college aspirations among Vermont youth have dropped across the board since 2020, most significantly among young men who would be first-in-family to pursue college (from 58% to 45%).
Declining postsecondary aspirations should concern us all. Already, Vermont’s high schoolers are continuing to postsecondary education at the lowest rates in our region, according to the New England Secondary School Consortium’s Common Data Project. Fewer than half of high school graduates transition to college. Among high school graduates from low-income families, that continuation rate falls to one-third. A sharp decline in aspirations signals that continuation rates will sink even lower.
And yet we know that college degrees have enduring value. They open doors to a lifetime of opportunity. Last month, Georgetown’s Center on Education and the Workforce released an economic projection report that finds Vermont is one of four states (plus the District of Columbia) with the highest percentage of jobs in 2031 that will require a bachelor’s degree. And earlier this month, The Atlantic published an article, “The Myth of the Unemployed College Grad,” that explains why college degrees continue to be a great investment and questions why the media keeps suggesting otherwise.
The good news is that there’s never been a better time to enroll in college in Vermont.
Because of recent state investments like the 802 Opportunity Grant and Vermont Tuition Advantage that lower the cost of attending the Community College of Vermont — and because of recent philanthropic investments, like our promise of a free CCV degree through the state’s Early College program to the Vermont high school classes of 2023 through 2026 — the reality is that college degrees are within reach for Vermont youth who want them.
So what will it take to reverse the downward trend in postsecondary aspirations?
Drawing on everything we’ve learned at the McClure Foundation from 15 years of grantmaking, we think it will take sustaining and building on these universal or near-universal investments in the affordability of career-connected public college. In a state with lots of narrowly scoped scholarships, only easily understood, debt-free pathways available to everybody have the power to transform youth and family perception that college is within reach.
That’s why we made the Free Degree Promise to the entire Vermont high school classes of 2023-2026. It’s also why we centered the Free Degree Promise at CCV. With locations within 25 miles of 95% of Vermonters, CCV is an engine of economic mobility that serves the greatest number of low-income Vermonters of any college in the state, many of whom transfer to Vermont State University, the University of Vermont and other Vermont colleges after completing their associate degree.
Eighteen months after announcing the Free Degree Promise through the state’s Early College program, we can say that it’s working to make post-secondary education the easy choice for students who weren’t considering college before.
More than 230 high school seniors from 90% of Vermont’s high schools enrolled in Early College at CCV this fall knowing they are eligible for a free degree. That number marks a 70% increase in CCV’s Early College enrollment since the Free Degree Promise was announced in spring 2022 and includes nearly double the number of first-generation college students, as well as increased participation among low-income students and students of color.
We hope that means more young people choosing to stay in Vermont because they can imagine and create their futures here.
We’ve committed to this Promise through the Vermont high school class of 2026, and we’ll continue to share what we learn along the way. In the meantime, in partnership with CCV, we’re focused on supporting enrolled students — such as Savannah Lafountain, who recently told us: “When I went into the program, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, college is gonna take such a long time.’ But I’ll have my associate degree this spring. And it’s crazy to think about it. I’m almost there. I’ve almost done the first step. Without that added stress of having to pay for my college, I can move on with other things in my life.”
