Free College for High School Students

A Win-Win Solution for Students and Taxpayers

Hartford, Connecticut, Monday, January 29, 2007 – The Yankee Institute releases “Free College for High School Students,” a study whose plan:

• gives every high school student the opportunity to receive a full two-year scholarship to community college
• saves taxpayers as much as $10,000 or more for every student who receives a scholarship;
• can be easily implemented today by most school boards in Connecticut and around the country.

Washington D.C.’s Heritage Foundation, education analyst Dan Lips, said, “This new report by the Yankee Institute offers an innovative reform proposal that should appeal to parents, taxpayers, and students. Elected officials and policymakers from across the political spectrum should take a serious look at this innovative reform approach.”

Authored by Yankee’s executive director, Lewis M. Andrews, Ph.D. the paper reveals that while there is no such thing as a “free lunch,” the simple reform of giving high school students who meet their graduation requirements in three years a full community college scholarship would achieve the following: 1. improve the academic quality of public education; 2. reduce skyrocketing property, income and sales tax required to fund public education; 3. attenuate senior year boredom that drives adolescents to engage in self-destructive behavior; 4. make college education more affordable for all students; 5. give secondary school educators a cost-free way to cope with the growing number of taxpayer outrage over public employee wages, and benefits; 6. relieve growing towns and cities from the burden of costly new school construction; 7. bring the defenders of the current public education system and its critics together in the common cause of helping future generations.

“Andrews takes a fresh look at a perplexing problem that affects all school systems in our nation’s cities and towns. His out-of the box ideas are already working in other states and can be introduced in Connecticut. The potential benefits for students, families, and local taxpayers should give one cause to look at alternatives to the rigidities of what is today a system in trouble,” Mike Guarco, board of finance chairman, town of Granby.

To download a copy of “Free College for High School Students,” visit www.yankeeinstitute.org.

Dr. Andrews is available for print, radio, and television interviews. Contact Mary Crean at (860) 833-2551 or by email at mary@yankeeinstitute.org.

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