Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Speaker 0]: All right, welcome everybody to House Education on February 20. This morning we are gonna hear about the free degree promise from both organizers and participants, really great for us. I will admit this committee sometimes gets confused among all of the sort of scholarship programs that are being college tuition free for Vermonters. There's free degree promise. There's freedom and unity. There's eight zero two opportunities. So if you could start off by just sort of telling us where you fall and how it works, and then we'd love to hear the rest of your testimony.

[Carolyn Weir]: Absolutely. Good morning. Morning.

[JL (J.L.) Francis]: For the

[Carolyn Weir]: record, my name is Carolyn Weir, executive director of the McClure Foundation. We're We're a thirty year supporting organization of the Vermont Community Foundation that focuses on career pathways, specifically things that connect young people with Vermont's most promising jobs, which you may have seen before. So I'm glad to be here today. We are here to talk about the state's Early College Program as a Flexible Pathway and the Free Degree Promise which builds on that program and the eight zero two Opportunity Program and the Vermont State Grant. So this is an accelerated purposeful pathway available to all Vermont high school students who are eligible for the state's early college program that offers an accelerated debt free pathway to associate degrees of their choosing. It's a highly leveraged model in a state with relatively low high school completion and secondary continuation rates. And so part of what we're here to share with you today is what we are learning from the program in the ways in which it builds on a lot of existing state support. Can I start by just asking the students who are here today to testify and the students who are in the room with us to share your name and the town, your town of residence in Vermont? That would be great,

[Speaker 0]: yes.

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: I'm Emily Bajosian, and I'm from Burlington, Vermont.

[Lila (student from Barre)]: I'm Leland and I'm from Barrie.

[Unidentified student (virtual learner)]: I'm Jack McCann from Dobrovich.

[JL (J.L.) Francis]: I'm Casey Evans from Cathedonia. I'm JL Francis from Maple.

[Unidentified student (virtual learner)]: Here

[Carolyn Weir]: is a friend. Okay, thank you everyone for being here. So at the McLaurin Foundation, we have spent a lot of time this past year actually traveling around the state and asking young people they want adults to talk to them about careers and planning for life after high school. So I want to start just by sharing what we've learned. These are the things that have come across our conversations most recently in Pine Park a few weeks back. Maybe there's something here that is a good reminder or pushes on an assumption that you have. This is about how young people want adults to talk to them about careers and planning for life after high school. But when we talk to young adults about what they want and need, what we hear pretty consistently, especially from students who maybe don't have a plan, students who are struggling in high school, either academically or mentally or socially, students who are approaching senior year, maybe having completed all or nearly all of their high school graduation requirements, or students who need or benefit from a low risk way to try out the next step or a pathway is a need for flexibility, right? And where and how and what and when they're learning. And as a foundation that didn't surprise us because for the past decade, we have supported the equitable and meaningful implementation of different parts of the Functional Pathways Bill of 2013. So everything from work based learning and personalized learning plans to dual enrollment and early college. And it's the state's early college program that we are here to talk about today. What's become clear to us, having been immersed in this issue in the state and in terms of the national research for a decade, is that accelerated pathways when they are purposeful and when they route through public colleges, community colleges in particular, have a really special role in serving students far from participating. Historically, over half of the state's early college students have enrolled at CCB and the early college program, as I described before, is the first half of now this kind of built highly supportive pathway to accelerated debt free associate degrees called the three degree promise that we see really opening the doors to opportunity for many young Vermonters. Many of them would not have considered college before or may not have been positioned to be successful. As we begin the conversation, just wanted to share a few things. One will not be news to you is just a reminder of the original statutory intent of the flexible pathways bill, which was threefold, right? To support more students graduating from high school, to support more students being ready for college and for training, and to support more students actually continuing on. As a foundation, we wanna keep connecting the dots between the things that help more young people graduate with a plan on a purposeful pathway that ideally leads to promising jobs. And I think our key statement for this work right now is very much informed by the changing data around high school completion and post secondary continuation, both now the lowest in New England with some big equity gaps when we disaggregate by certain populations. And so at the Milkworth Foundation, we work hard to try and identify the bright spots and good models while also digging into the related systems complexities. And I think it's important to name that around this program, there are important systems complexities to attend to. And a lot of your conversations are necessarily focused on those things, The problems of practice that equitable scale and enrollment in these programs might be creating. Those are important and they matter and we have perspectives on them. And I think it's also really important to pay attention to the bright spots and what we're learning in terms of where and how and why students, especially students furthest from opportunity might be succeeding in these pathways. So today is about the student voices. To give a little bit more color, Chair Conlon, to your question at the front, I'll share that since the Free Degree Promise was announced four years ago, CCV has seen triple the number of low income student enrollment in the early college program and triple the number of early college program leaders persisting near full time for their degrees at CCB. This year's early college cohort is 50% low income, which is higher as I understand it than their peer rate in the general K-twelve high school population. And the students are really succeeding at record levels. This is the bright spot. This past fall semester, the early college cohort had a ninety percent course success rate and record breaking overall term GPA of 3.2. And this past June, CCV graduated its largest ever cohort of teenagers. The number of young people graduated with their debt free associate degrees numbered over 70 and came from all different parts of the state and were fifty percent first in family to complete their degrees. Some of them are transitioning right into the workforce, others are transitioning to other four year public institutions like MTSU When and we think about youth success in this program, we generally attribute it to two things. The first is that this program is what we look for in terms of the quality markers of accelerated pathways. Accelerated pathways, right, been in a long time. It's part of a national movement instead of best practices. And this particular program as it's offered at CCV is a purposeful pathway because it's not what the field nationally calls like random acts of dual enrollment. It embeds academic career advising and direct support for students and work based learning. The second is that CCB as our state's access institution has an incredibly strong track record of serving students far from opportunity, right? Accessibility is a core value and career pathways is a core focus. So part of that accessibility is created by offering synchronous online experiences. Now last year, I think 80% of early college students at TCB had at least one on ground in person course, but a lot of them are balancing school and work and life and geography and online courses are an important part of what that accessibility looks like. I think about Addison from Middlebury, who was the first in his father's family to graduate from high school. And he told us that as a junior, he had a 2.8 GPA to build his chemistry class. His mom was diagnosed with leukemia, so it was hard to focus and he didn't have the grades to get into any of the schools he was interested in and he needed a different way to learn. He said, College environment is different than high school. I recommend online classes. It was a way for me to adjust to college life while getting ahead at the same time. I think every young person has different needs, of course. And it's also important in the context of this conversation when we think about the systems development questions you all are wrestling with, to acknowledge that for most high school seniors, I think the best match for them is a traditional high school experience. It's a particular subset of students, maybe 5% for whom the state's early college program as it's structured and supported and routed through our state's access institution that can be an incredible game changer. As we think about the declines in high school completion rates and post secondary continuation rates with significant gaps faced by students furthest from opportunity, we see a need to support these pathways now more than ever. And our experience these past four years has actually generated for us three really important lessons about how to inspire enrollment and support student success that we are carrying with us to the rest of our grant making portfolio. But now I'd love to just turn it over to the students so you can hear from them why they chose this program and how it's connecting them with a purposeful pathway. Let me check who wants to start. Okay, thanks.

[Speaker 0]: Anybody introducing yourself again? That'd be great.

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: Yeah, I am Emily Bjorosigan from Burlington, Vermont. Good morning, Chairperson Conlon and members of the Cass Education Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Emiliana Bodrovich. I'm from Burlington and I participated in the CCB Early College Program. I'm currently in a gap year and will attend McGill University this fall to study political science and economics. And that academic direction came directly from the courses I took through CCV. Before early college, I didn't know what I wanted to study. During the program, I took American politics and government, and that class changed how I thought about education and what I wanted to do with it. It made college feel purposeful instead of something I was expected to do after high school. My high school is currently located in a renovated downtown building that does not have specialized facilities like a ceramic studio. Ceramics was very important to me, and through CCB, I was able to take Ceramics one and two in a fully equipped studio with proper materials and instruction. Those classes didn't just give me credits, they gave me skills. With that experience, I was able to get a job as an art teacher at Burlington City Arts. I would not have had that opportunity without Early College. Taking real college classrooms while still in high school changed how I approached learning. I had to manage a syllabus, meet long term deadlines, and communicate directly with professors. Because of that, I'm entering college already understanding the expectations instead of trying to figure them out for the first time. Early college also gave me flexibility and time to work. During that period, I built clothing resell and upcycling business that earned over $8,000 combined with earning college credits early. I now have fewer semesters left to complete, and I can spend this year saving money, which reduces how much I need to borrow. For students like me, the barrier to higher education is not motivation, it's risk. Early college lowers that risk. It helps students discover what they want, what they want to study, gain real skills, and enter college more prepared both academically and financially. I encourage continued support for programs that allow high school students to take real college courses and build a path before they graduate. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[Speaker 0]: Were your CCB courses transferable for college credit at McGill, or don't you know yet?

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: I currently don't know, but they

[Lila (student from Barre)]: could. It

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: is in the works.

[Speaker 0]: And where did you attend CCB?

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: I attended in Wannusi.

[Speaker 0]: Good Okay. Campus there. Any other questions to any members? Great. If any could occur to you later, can follow-up at the end.

[Lila (student from Barre)]: Hi, Lila, and I'm from Barry, and I attend CCV, right in front of my

[JL (J.L.) Francis]: whole year. I've

[Lila (student from Barre)]: always known I wanted to go into the medical field, and CCV has helped me figure out where I want to go into the medical field. I'm currently in the health sciences program for dental hygiene, And I don't know if anyone here has ever tried to look what colleges offer dental hygiene as a major, but it is so slim. It's like honestly one other college, and it's I think BSC, I don't know, one of them. Yep, BTSU. And it's so incredibly expensive to go for dental hygiene anywhere. It's about $60,000 a year. And that's a lot of money that I don't have. And spending two years at CCB has saved me $120,000 I don't qualify for financial aid at a lot of these colleges. My FAFSA just gave me about $900 for each year, which is not a lot of money when it's $60,000 So through CCV, I've been able to work closely with my academic advisor in figuring out how to be able to transfer after these two years into a different college. I'm not sure where I'm going yet, but I've been able to work with my academic advisor to go through that. I've been able to I'm graduating this spring. I'm a senior, and I'm graduating with a little under 35 college credits. So I've gotten so much experience that I wouldn't have gotten if I wasn't able to attend CCV this year. And it's just, it really helped me think about what I'm doing after high school, because it's not something that I know a lot of kids from high school, would have Spaulding. A lot of kids don't think about it. It's a lot of low income students that go to my school. And so it was very normalized not to really think about where you're going to college after. And it's very, it's difficult. A lot of people are pushed into blue collar jobs the career center and other jobs like that, because it's so almost impossible to be able to afford to go to college. And so being able to go to CCV, I've seen so many students, not just like me, but all my friends, my peers, they've been able to go to CCV and get degrees that they would not have been able to get through various things, like political science, health sciences, all of that. And so it's honestly just been a really great opportunity for me. And if I didn't have it this year, I don't know what I would be doing. I probably would not have found my love for dental hygiene and been able to go.

[Speaker 0]: Did you do early college and then an additional year at CCV or graduate from high school and then go to CCV for two years?

[Lila (student from Barre)]: So I'm a senior high school right now and I'll be going CCV next year

[Speaker 0]: as well. And will you be going under what sort of scholarship program might you be attending CCV? You talked about being able to save all this money.

[Lila (student from Barre)]: Right now I'm under the pre degree promise. So I paid, I think, 200 in whole this year to be able to attend CCB.

[Speaker 0]: So for this year, you're a senior now, and then for next year, you don't know which scholarship may or may not be you may qualify for?

[Carolyn Weir]: The second year would be free degree promise.

[Speaker 0]: It guarantees the two years.

[Carolyn Weir]: Right. So the first year of the program, students are in The States or college program. The second year builds on some of the means tested supports that are already available from federal and state aid. So that includes Pell, Vermont State Grant, and eight zero two Opportunity. The Free Break Promise basically takes that means testing support and makes it universal. And this is like the counterintuitive insight walked away as a foundation from our past four years, holding pretty tight, is that when you take means tested support, you make it universal and you pair that with a state's access institution, even though what you're doing is changing financial eligibility for supports to moderate income students and higher income students, those who are facing kind of what is actually a pretty significant cliff above the eight zero two eligibility threshold to what is among the highest CC or the highest community college tuition in the country, what you actually see in terms of enrollment pattern shifts is the greatest shifts among low income students who are actually eligible for the supports before the Pre degree Promise. So part of what we're testing here is messaging as an intervention, That when the message is it's available to everyone and you can choose any degree program, we pathways see benefiting those who stand to benefit the most. And again, when it's positioned at an access institution and the access institution is a resource to provide the wraparound supports that students need in terms of work based learning that's integrated in academic and career advising and direct to student stipends, think that's part of what's contributing to the success that we are seeing, not only in terms of who's accessing the program, but the incredible academic success of the students on the pathway.

[Speaker 0]: Just to be clear, the free degree promise is essentially if you do early college, free degree promise will assure you tuition free attendance at CCV for the second year. Did you say it was or was not means tested?

[Carolyn Weir]: It's not means tested. And any degree program at CCP.

[Speaker 0]: But eight or two opportunities applies first.

[Carolyn Weir]: Exactly. So it's a last dollar program that expands something that was means tested to universal in a community college context. And what we're seeing is I think what many other places across the country have seen in terms of what it looks like to build on means tested program in a community college setting.

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: And just to be clear, in order to qualify for all of that, your early college has to be done at CCV? Correct, at CCV. So it can't just be anywhere, it has to

[Speaker 0]: So be at Leland, after you finish your second year at CCV, your goal would be to move on to a bachelor's degree that would land you with a dental hygiene program. And you say those are very few and far between? Yes. Did you say that the state university does have a dental hygiene program?

[Lila (student from Barre)]: PTSD offers one, and that's the only one in Vermont. And there's, I think, four others in New England that offer dental hygiene as a major.

[Carolyn Weir]: We work with a lot of students like Abby from Barry, who was struggling academically in a high school context, transitioned to CCB, really thrived in the learning environment, found herself on the Dean's List. She was also interested in the health sciences path and continued at TSU towards a bachelor's degree in nursing. So I think health sciences is a particular pathway, as is teaching. So Erin from White River Junction had said college was not for them. Then they learned about the program, saw it as a low risk way that's where their interest and are now at BTSU to be a high school art teacher. Or like Chelsea from Franklin County, who's at UVM now, and said she wouldn't have been able to get into UVM, applying as a senior for a number of reasons, was intimidated by the SAT. But her experience at CCV gave her confidence as someone who self identifies as almost having went out of middle school and is now thriving at UVM. My

[Unidentified student (virtual learner)]: name is Beth Quimby. I'm from Durham, I'm participating in the Early College Program. It's been a really great resource for me, especially because I come from a single parent household. It's pretty low income, so I always knew I wanted to go to college, it was always a large challenge, especially looking at the cost of it and everything. And the early college program really gave me a lower risk way to explore some of the opportunities and my interests in a college setting that would benefit me later. Currently plan on transferring to UBM after I complete my associates at CCB. And CCB offers some other degree opportunities, like becoming a student ambassador for it, or there's a leadership credential. Both are things that I hope will help me be able to get an RA position at UBM to help cut down costs even more. And for the experience in leadership role, think those will really benefit me in job positions later on in life too. And I learned about Early College through my high school. They did some really good presentations and they gave good information. It was really appealing to me, and I feel like it was, it is and was shown as just a really good opportunity, especially for lower income people who aren't quite sure what they will be able to do because of those boundaries.

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: Do you have a campus that you can get to, or are you doing it virtually?

[Unidentified student (virtual learner)]: I'm currently doing it virtually, but last semester I was half and half of attending the Broward Road campus and doing it online.

[Speaker 0]: What do you think of, it's a great question, what do you think of virtual learning versus in the classroom learning within a college setting?

[Unidentified student (virtual learner)]: I quite like it, especially because I don't have the greatest immune system and I get really sick kind of often. And it's hard to be able to make up class participation things, and when everything's online, I can take that extra rest and still get my work done and everything without a penalty. I find it quite helpful for that.

[Speaker 0]: Presenter Brady.

[Erin Brady (Ranking Member)]: I apologize if you already shared this, but I wonder if each of you can just briefly talk about how you learned about early college, where you got the information, how you got connected to it, sort of the very, very first steps of your path.

[Unidentified student (virtual learner)]: Yeah. For me, was a couple presentations at school during ACE period, is kind a study follow-up. And I went to one of those and it really was interesting. I reached out to the counselor to my school that works with it. I got more in contact, I learned more about the program directly through her, and then I was able to apply.

[Lila (student from Barre)]: My mom, my mom's an RN, she didn't go to traditional college, so she was in LNA for a very long time, and then CCB was able to put her through her LDN and RN year. And so CCB has been on my radar, and then within the last four years when they introduced early college, was able to just me looking at the school as a whole. Was able to connect through that.

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: I remember seeing lots of posters in my high school and also emails being sent out, as well as a presentation put on by, I think there were some CCB representatives and it was in the high school cafeteria.

[Speaker 0]: Other questions? We have a little more time if there are other students who would like to speak. Why don't you have a seat right up here? That'd be great. Introduce yourself.

[Casey Adams]: I'm Casey Adams again from Coventry. I'm in the free degree promise year right now. I found out about CCB through Heather over here, who is my mom's cousin, but also a CCD advisor. And my junior year, did dual enrollment, which you can take two classes. And then I did that my junior year. My senior year, I did early college. And then I'm on my three degree promise year. I have always known I wanted to do something in criminal justice, but my dad became a customs officer locally. And I realized I would also like to become a customs and border protection officer, which you don't need a degree for. But I wanted to learn more about the criminal justice system. And with him working there, he makes too much money for me to get scholarships, many scholarships. So the affordable way was through the early college program. So the two years, two and years plus the two other classes. I'm at 48 credits right now. I'm going to be 60 because I'm taking four classes right now. So I'll graduate with my associate's degree this spring. And yeah, it really helped me learn more about the criminal justice system. I took a lot of classes already about criminal justice and then other classes as well. And it's setting me up for becoming a officer. And I'm going to do a bachelor's degree also, probably at Linden. But this is setting me up to learn more about it. And it

[Carolyn Weir]: really helped me work cost wise mostly. I'm wondering, I'm thinking about some students on the pathway, just reflecting on how many credits you all graduated high school with. Donovan Arnold from Franklin County had a similar story and his pathway through CCV was in accounting. He had essentially exhausted the math courses available at Richford Junior Senior High School. So he was looking for a way to continue and explore that interest in his online experience at CCV, put him in a classroom with accounting professionals who were sometimes decades older than him and thought it was so cool to have a 17, 18 year old in the class interested in their field and really him understand what the options are. He graduated from high school with his bookkeeping certificate and a number of hours and some work based learning as well. I'm curious if any students in the room also worked a certificate program into your degree pathway.

[JL (J.L.) Francis]: Hello, my name is Sarah Francis. I'm not graduated yet. I'm still a senior and I'm with the Early College Program. Last year I was in dual enrollment and currently I'm on my way to get my associate's degree, I believe after this summer, maybe fall. And CCB has really helped me guide my career path. For years, I've never really known what I wanted to do. I've gotten multiple certifications and careers like modeling, business, welding, and CCV opened my eyes to the field of law and how it correlates with business and my love for it. And it's really inspired me to study corporate law and through CCV I have to get my associate's as well as my bachelor's degree and transfer some of my credits. I have to get my business administration degree and then go to law school afterwards. But CCV has really opened my eyes to the different opportunities that the world has. I personally grew up in Arizona and I didn't have any of these opportunities to have free college or even the career centers like Vermont does or the schools I've seen and been to. And so these opportunities for somebody like me, my parents are they're pretty low off. We have I have two siblings and they make enough money but they don't make enough money to support all of us to go to college. And this pathway and this free degree is really helping me to figure out, hey, do I want to go to college? What do I want to go to college for? And I don't have to burden my parents with worrying about how they're going to pay for that because they want me to. So CCB has just really helped me guide my ideas, my careers, and what I really want to do in the future.

[Speaker 0]: Yeah, please.

[Heather McLaurin]: So, my name is Heather McLaurin and I am an academic advisor for CCBI at the Newport site. And actually, Casey and JL are both two of my advisees, which is really exciting to have them both here. And one of the things that I think I want to speak to is I have about fourteen early college students that I advise in our area. I deal with two high schools in the Northeast State Mount. And having two of them here, this is a great representation of that because most of my early college students' families would not qualify for Pell income. So their barrier, as you can see, isn't their brightness or their ability to achieve. It's actually that financial barrier. And so sometimes otherwise would not attend college because it's not required for the job that they're looking to go to, but because it's a free opportunity, it's really ideal for them. And as well as, JL, when you're looking at such an eager person to go into such a field and to make all these dreams come true without burdening for parents with that financial piece, we're looking at pathways to UVM that CCB has articulation agreements with that can get her guaranteed acceptance and can get her scholarships to be able to make that affordability match the tree. And so a lot of times, we are seeing absolutely what you're speaking to of the word free of takes down this barrier. And even students who are in early college, if they come and sit at my desk, the first thing they say is, I've to find out

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: how much this is going

[Heather McLaurin]: to cost me. And so when we take down that barrier, they see that that's no longer there. We're seeing more and more enrollment of younger students. And yes, certainly college exists in all these other pieces, but the average age of the CCB student has gone down immensely. We were graduating mostly 20 30 year olds. I would say 27 to 35 was our average age. And now it's down to 23 because of the amount of young students who are enrolling because of accessibility programs like this. So just wanted to speak that to them because I think there is a lot of potential that maybe wouldn't have been tapped if it wasn't for this great avenue financially.

[Speaker 0]: I'd like to ask the floor, what extent do you stay connected to your high school? Or are you sort of fully unenrolled and can't participate? Yeah, go ahead.

[Carolyn Weir]: Still do

[Unidentified student (virtual learner)]: like school sports. In the fall, I did cross country running. And in the spring, I help with unified sports. I'm still able to do those. And I'm still able to access my high school and everything. So some days, probably about once a week, I still go to school and do my work in the library there, so I still have social opportunities with my peers at lunchtime and when my friends are doing their work in there. I think it's important to be conscious of how you're staying connected, but you can stay very well connected and such.

[JL (J.L.) Francis]: I'm pretty connected. I did a winter sport this winter, and I'm not too connected with high school anymore since I do do digital schooling. I wanted to have a connection with my career center, but due to pass something was passed last year that made me not able to do career center and early college. So that really divided me in between. But I'm still connected with my peers. I still get to attend all the clubs. I can go in and out of school whenever I like. There's pretty little limitations.

[Lila (student from Barre)]: I'm still able to be connected through sports and clubs. I still go to my high school for practice after school and I still go to the club every Wednesday. I'm able to stay connected to my peers through social, just being social with them. So I'm able to

[Casey Adams]: see them on a daily basis. Yeah, last year I was allowed to play basketball, still I play basketball. And I was allowed to go to prom and I also went to the school every so often if I needed to get work done. And yeah, I was able to, I'm not anymore because I graduated high school, but I was able to last year. Last year,

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: my friend at the college was magazine and literary, or literary and art magazine. And so I would be there constantly after schools, or after school and during the time I didn't have classes at CCD, which was most of the time, I'd be up there working and volunteering for the library, just really trying to stay connected with the teachers who helped me out all the rest of the years and the students because there are those connections that you are leaving. So to be able to return is really nice. Like great, you can have the most flexible.

[Casey Adams]: I was also part of the National Honor Society last year too, that I could still go and

[Erin Brady (Ranking Member)]: Jana, you've probably already provided us with

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: this.

[Erin Brady (Ranking Member)]: But if not, is there a clear visual of how all of these things stack and connect and the dollars and then the numbers of students? It would just be helpful to have, but again, you may have given it to us. But as a follow-up, just to have a pretty succinct understanding of exactly the pre degree promise, early college, how all of these things

[Emiliana Bodrovich]: fit together exactly and what the numbers look like.

[Carolyn Weir]: And the visual of the pathway, how the pathway works, and some information about numbers and finances. I will say from the McClure Foundation's perspective, we have made a commitment to the pre degree promise from the Vermont high school classes of 2023 through 2028. And the equitable scaled version of this program right now, four years in,

[JL (J.L.) Francis]: kind

[Carolyn Weir]: of see triple the number of low income students accessing these accelerated pathways at CCV and it costs us all in. And that includes the last dollar tuition and fees plus direct to student stipends plus some institutional support to CCV to provide that enhanced academic and career advising and some wraparound supports and institutional support to assess and administer the program, is well under a million dollars a year. It's about $775,000 a year by statewide, universal, and accelerated free ecology increase, which in our mind is a little bit of a like, holy cow, is a great, there's a great return on investment for a relatively low investment because this is such a high leverage model. And four years in, when we look at the data, two fifty something students in our college at CCB, I think, and then a yield rate runs around at maybe 100 students in pre pre promise every year, well, more actually to support five semesters. It just, it feels like a high ROI.

[Speaker 0]: And you say the core commitment is through 2028? And then is a hard end or reevaluating at that We

[Carolyn Weir]: believe that there is value in this pathway because of the simplicity of the messaging and the hope that it is inspiring among young people and their families who don't have to know whether their household makes over or under $100,000 a year. Doesn't have to predict whether that will be true two or three years from now. And doesn't have to wrestle with this deeply cultural story in our state that college isn't worth it. And so we are hopeful to see our way into some type of public private partnership around this. Chair Marcotte introduced a bill that I think had signatories of everyone in house commerce except maybe one member who wasn't there that day. I believe it was sent to this committee and it looks to the Higher Education Trust Fund, which is around the fall last year, and proposes a split four ways approach to a fund that has traditionally been split three ways in a way that would, I think better proportionally support the two institutions that serve the greatest number of low income Vermonters, which is CCB and PTSD.

[Speaker 0]: We're all learning about the Higher Ed Trust Fund a lot, but I think one of the things we're learning is that it's not a amount of money you can count on every year.

[Carolyn Weir]: Which is part of why I think public private partnership can make sense, right? From a foundation's perspective, we've been in on this pathway for the past four years and what we have learned makes us feel like there's something here about universal access at community college for this very specific population of transitioning Asian movement, given what we are seeing in the data, what we're hearing from students and given that overall price tag.

[Speaker 0]: Did this essentially grow out of McClure's Like during COVID, it was kind of like any student that wants to take a CCV class can take it for free. Is that sort of where the origin of all of this is?

[Carolyn Weir]: Yeah, it grew out of, I would say three things. It grew out of ten years of supporting the equitable and meaningful implementation of flexible pathways, really across personalized learning plans to work based learning, to dual enrollment, to early college, and just kind of learning about the opportunities that legislation creates and some of the systems pressures that it creates. And then it also came out of COVID. You may remember that in June 2020, young people in that senior class were graduating into a time of immense uncertainty. Like how would college be delivered? Would it be delivered at all? Couldn't my family still pay if my parents lost a job, but I've already completed FAFSA? So what we did in that moment was just provide something very, very simple. The graduation gift of that class of one free course of their choosing at CCB, it was really designed as a way to support kind of an operational handoff, if you will, between high school counselors and advisors at the community college level who could support any student, even if they're enrolled for one class to kind of identify their next steps. And we were floored by the response. We thought maybe a couple 100 students would take us up on that class. And it was upwards of 10% of this women's class. It was over 600 young people who took one free CCB course. And that helped change our thinking as a foundation that has actually never been a scholarship funder to say actually with the right supports and messaging, scholarship in this context really can inspire enrollment and change the stories we hold. And so how do we build on what we have learned in the Vermont context that already offers some of these pathways and how can we do it in a way that makes take up and success of those pathways more equitable?

[Speaker 0]: Great, thank you very much for making the time this morning and good luck with your learning in the future.

[Carolyn Weir]: For taking this chance.

[Speaker 0]: Remember, it's a great state to stay in.

[JL (J.L.) Francis]: Means it is.

[Speaker 0]: Let's take a five minute break, five