Dear Colleagues, <\/p>\n
On Monday, our Board of Trustees approved a bold proposal to offer free tuition to high school graduates and GED\u00ae completers \u2014 starting with the class of 2024. <\/p>\n
This is an incredible opportunity to alleviate one of the biggest barriers our students face. I want to share more about what to expect next and why <\/strong>we proposed such a program. <\/p>\n We know the college-going rates in Central Texas are dropping. Over the past year, 57% of high school seniors in our service area didn\u2019t enroll in postsecondary education after graduating. When we talked to students who applied to ACC but never enrolled, they told us that tuition costs were the overwhelming reason they postponed college. <\/p>\n ACC Free Tuition Overview Getting Started We know our current students face the same challenges, though. And, we\u2019re thinking about them too. Up next, we\u2019re going to explore opportunities to extend tuition relief to our current students. We\u2019ll know more about what that looks like in the coming weeks and months. <\/p>\n And, as you\u2019re aware, we\u2019re also discussing free tuition for the dependents of our employees. Since this would be considered a new employee benefit, it will be part of our budget process. The board reviews our annual budget over the summer months and votes on it by August. <\/p>\n Funding To grow this pilot and expand it to future student groups, we\u2019re going to rely heavily upon our partnerships in the community. The college is aggressively expanding its development efforts to encourage more corporate, community, and philanthropic partners to invest in the college and the success of our students.<\/p>\n Resources You can learn more about the planning at austincc.edu\/freetuitionplan<\/a>, and you can explore all the details about the ACC Free Tuition pilot program at austincc.edu\/freetuition<\/a>. You will likely get questions from students and families. Please encourage them to visit these sites for more information and let them know there is a form they can submit if they have more questions. We have teams dedicated to these channels who can connect them with the right answers. The Office of College Relations & Marketing (OCRM) also is monitoring our district social media channels to respond to comments and provide accurate information. To ensure there is no misinformation, OCRM is the approved office responsible for responding on these channels. <\/p>\n I believe in this college, in the people who are here, and in our students. ACC is going to be a model for other colleges in the nation. I thank you for being a part of this journey, and I look forward to taking these next steps together. <\/p>\n This is one way we are truly working \u2014 together \u2014 to love our students to success. <\/p>\n Much love, Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart<\/p>\n Chancellor<\/p>\n Austin Community College District<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Colleagues, On Monday, our Board of Trustees approved a bold proposal to offer free tuition to high school graduates and GED\u00ae completers \u2014 starting with the class of 2024. This is an incredible opportunity … Continue reading
<\/strong>We think the ACC Free Tuition pilot program can help. With the board\u2019s approval now in place, ACC will pilot the new program for five years, starting in fall 2024. Here\u2019s what it looks like: <\/p>\n\n
<\/strong>This is the first step in our big journey to make tuition free for every student. We selected this cohort for the pilot program because our data tells us it\u2019s a promising group to begin with. We know approximately how many students to expect so we can estimate the cost to the college. We also know this is a group of students who are disappearing from college at rapid rates. We need to do something to make a change. <\/p>\n
<\/strong>Some of you may be wondering how we\u2019re paying for this pilot program. The simple answer is, that tuition and fees make up a small part of our annual budget. Currently, the tuition revenue for all direct-to-college high school graduates represents about four percent of the college\u2019s total budget. We estimated the cost for the pilot program in its first year to be approximately $7 million. So, we are able to pay for this program in our existing budget. <\/p>\n
<\/strong>It took a lot of work to get here, and I\u2019m incredibly grateful for everyone who helped make this program a reality \u2014 from our Board of Trustees who called on us to dig deep and prove our due diligence \u2014 to our faculty and staff who did the research, planning, and communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n
russell<\/p>\n