Proposed budget dumps grants; Strickland's plan would eliminate state aid for about 14,000 students.

BYLINE: By Stephanie Irwin Staff Writer

About 14,000 students in work force training at for-profit schools would be dropped from the state's grant program for low-income students under Gov. Ted Strickland's proposed budget.

This fall, students who enroll in associate degree, diploma or certificate programs would no longer be eligible for the Ohio College Opportunity Grant.

"This is devastating," said Max Lerner, executive director of the Ohio Association of Career Colleges and Schools. "Most of our students come from low-income families and they're borrowing everything they can. They need these grants."

About three-quarters of all students at for-profit schools get the Opportunity Grant, which this year ranged from $480 to $3,996 per student, costing the state about $23 million.

About 50 of Ohio's 230 forprofit schools statewide would be affected, Lerner said.

Strickland wants the state aid program to focus on needy students attending two- and four- year colleges and universities in the Ohio Board of Regents system, with the goal of increasing the number bachelor's degrees.

Local career-training schools RETS Tech Center and Ohio Institute of Photography and Technology, which would likely lose enrollment and revenue if the proposal passes, say their mission is to train the work force.

"Strickland wants Ohioans to learn what they need to become employees in Ohio - that's what we do here," said Richard Rucker, RETS president. "I just don't understand the rationale in cutting us out."

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