crowded hall

This year's high school seniors are the first in Oregon who are eligible to attend community college on tuition of just $50 per term. State officials expect 25 percent more newly minted high school graduates will enroll in community college than in years past.

(Betsy Hammond / The Oregonian)

Oregon has found a clever way to prompt thousands more young Oregonians to go to community college and to do better once they get there -- while having the federal government pay most of the tab.

It's called "The Oregon Promise," and its highly touted offer -- a tuition-free community college education -- in many cases amounts to selling students an opportunity that already exists as if it were something completely new.

State officials nonetheless expect the program to lure many more students to enroll in community college. And, once they get there, all Oregon Promise recipients will have an incentive to take a full course load and earn good grades -- both of which make it more likely they will stick with college long enough to earn a degree or industry certification.

This year's high school seniors are the first eligible to attend community college for tuition of just $50 per term, the central provision of the new program.

How to apply for an Oregon Promise scholarship

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To apply, high school seniors must

register

on the state financial aid and scholarship web site,

then complete a short Oregon Promise application.

>>

Students need to

submit a copy of their high school transcript

, showing courses taken and grade-point average. Official transcripts are not required; a screenshot from the school's online grading portal is acceptable.

>>

Students will receive the money only if they

enroll next fall at an Oregon community college.

Officials expect that some 7,000 students, or nearly 20 percent of all public and private high school graduates in the class of 2016, will take the state up on that offer.

If that happens, the influx would represent almost a 25 percent increase in new high school graduates enrolling in community college.

Some will be students who would otherwise have enrolled in a four-year college but were swayed by the free tuition, said Bob Brew, Oregon's director of student access and completion. But most will represent a genuine uptick in Oregon's historically low rate of high school grads who enroll in some form of college, which has hovered around 60 percent.

How it works

To qualify, students must graduate from an Oregon high school with a grade point average of at least 2.5 and apply for Oregon Promise by March 1.

Already, about 5,400 high school seniors have applied, and the deadline is more than two months away.

Mark Hass, a state senator from Beaverton, was the leading force behind Oregon's decision to offer what widely referred to as "free community college."

He modeled it after the first-of-its-kind Tennessee Promise program, established in 2014. In that state, the share of new high school graduates who went on to a state university, college or community college surged 13 percent in the first year.

Hass realized that his version would be a brilliant way to market community college-going to teenage Oregonians and their families - without putting much of a dent in the state treasury.

That is because free federal student aid, which already is available to most Oregon high school graduates who enroll in community college, will cover the vast majority of the tuition expenses.

Students will be eligible for the Oregon Promise only if they enter community college within six months of graduating high school or earning a GED. The high school class of 2016 is being showered with promotional materials to make sure all seniors know about the new offer.

Students who are accepted into the program and enroll in community college at least half-time will have all but $50 per term of their tuition covered, first by whatever federal grants they qualify for, then, if needed, by the state. Students whose tuition is fully covered by federal aid will get a $1,000 Oregon Promise award from the state to help pay for books, fees, transportation or other college costs.

The free tuition and $1,000-a-year awards will keep flowing for the equivalent of two years of full-time study, provided the student's college grade-point average is 2.5 or higher.

Low cost to state

In a state budget that tops $9 billion a year, the nearly-free community college program has a relatively tiny price tag: $10 million for the first year.

The cost is low because federal grants already cover, and will continue to cover, all or much of the tuition bill for most community college students.

Low-income students are eligible for federal Pell grants of up to about $5,800 a year, based on family income. The federal student aid is guaranteed to all who apply and qualify.

Last year, about 40 percent of recent high school graduates who enrolled in community college received enough Pell money to cover the average tuition bill of $4,200. Another 30 percent, mainly from families earning $40,000 to $60,000 a year, got much but not all their tuition covered by federal grants.

But until the Oregon Promise marketing campaign came along, most low-income middle and high school students didn't realize that they could bank on going to community college for little or no tuition.

"It's a very effective branding strategy for community college, a very effective way to market the kind of tuition support that is available for community college students," said Ben Cannon, executive director of Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Committee.

For undocumented immigrants who graduate from Oregon high schools, the program will make a huge difference. They don't qualify for any federal grants or loans, even though most come from very low income families. They will be eligible to have all of their community college tuition covered by state Oregon Promise money. The state expects about 70 undocumented students to take part the first year.

Most of the $10 million in Oregon Promise grants will go to students from middle-class families with incomes above $60,000, not to those with the greatest financial need, Cannon acknowledges, because they are the ones who don't get federal grants.

Top leaders in Oregon's higher education establishment favored a different approach - one that would drive more money to the neediest college students, who have much lower college completion rates than middle-class students.

Brew said students from low-income families don't have trouble completing community college because of tuition costs, but because they can't afford to house and feed themselves while forgoing work to take classes and study.

Changes to Oregon's main college financial aid program, also enacted by the 2015 Legislature, will do even more than the Oregon Promise will do for middle-class students to help the lowest-income college students attend college, Cannon said.

And the Oregon Promise also will benefit the neediest students, Cannon said. It will motivate students from lower-income families to go to college, by letting them know from a young age that they can go tuition-free, and it will provide every student with at least $1,000 they wouldn't have otherwise to pay for books or fees.

"It opens the possibility to more students," Brew said. "And by having the tuition paid, students won't feel the need to make that difficult choice between, 'Gosh, do I work more hours and take fewer credits?'"

Brew said students who attend college full-time are much more likely to graduate.

"So it's a win for the student, when they get that certificate or degree," Brew said. "It's good for the state, because the state will get higher tax payments from the student for the higher salary. And having more college-educated Oregonians will be good for economy overall."

-- Betsy Hammond