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BYLINE: JONATHANRIVOLI Bismarck Tribune
After passing the state Senate last month, a plan to give North Dakota high school students free college tuition faces its next hurdle in the House.
House members began deliberation on the plan Monday with a hearing in the House Education Committee.
Sponsored by Sen. Tony Grindberg, R-Fargo, the plan is seen as a tool to keep North Dakota's best and brightest students in the state. It's also viewed as an economic development tool that could attract out-of-state families with the allure of tuition-free education for their children.
Grindberg calls it "a bold initiative to stimulate population growth."
He said his plan is essential for North Dakota to adapt to a 21st century model of economic development, which emphasizes human and intellectual capital over physical capital.
"Business expansion and investment decisions made today in the United States and North Dakota are made primarily on an available and qualified knowledge-driven workforce," Grindberg said.
Under his proposal, students who attend K-12 at a North Dakota public or private school would have 100 percent of their tuition at a North Dakota college paid for by the state. The minimum benefit, for students who attend grades nine through 12 in North Dakota, would be 65 percent.
Eligibility would begin with those entering ninth grade in 2008.
In addition to the attendance requirements, students also would have to take four years of math and science in high school and earn at least a 23 on their ACT, a national aptitude test. The average ACT score in North Dakota is 21.4.
Based on an estimate from the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, 35 percent of North Dakota students would meet these academic standards.
The plan is expected to cost $25 million this biennium and $40 million for every biennium after that.
It is loosely modeled after a free college tuition program in Kalamazoo, Mich. In 2005, private donors offered to fund a free college education for students enrolled in the Kalamazoo Public School District.
Just two years later, property values have risen and class sizes have increased in the beleaguered Rust Belt city. Last year, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed legislation that employs state funding to offer brief-tuition scholarships to high school students across the state.
Other states, including Georgia, West Virginia and Wyoming have programs that offer full or brief scholarships to their state universities.
"If we do not do something soon we will wake up one day and find out the world has passed us by," said Dante Miller, student body vice president at North Dakota State University.
Lee Vickers, president of Dickinson State University, said the program could put North Dakota on the road toward improvement in both higher education and economic development.
"This is not going to solve everything," Vickers said. "It is a step in the right direction."
The bill was unopposed at Monday's hearing and committee members did not take any action on it.
It is SB2347.
(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@bismarcktribune.com.)
House debates free college tuition bill