The Hechinger Report – Meredith Kolodner
“As states focus on increasing the number of low-income students who go to college, Alabama has added another target group – their parents. Last year, Alabama promised 10,000 sixth and seventh graders at more than 50 schools in a poor area of the state free community college tuition, along with extra tutoring and mentoring. This fall, state officials are holding meetings at six community colleges in the region to recruit the parents of those students, who will also be able to enroll tuition-free. “We believe this to be a real game-changer,” said Lawrence E. Tyson, a professor who is leading the initiative. “One way to change the culture of not just a community, but also a home, is to involve the parents.” The schools whose families are receiving this offer are in a region of Alabama known as the Black Belt, which historically has had some of the highest poverty rates and lowest levels of formal education in the nation. More than one-quarter of African-Americans in the region live in poverty. In most of Alabama’s Black Belt counties, fewer than 15 percent of adults have bachelor degrees. Students whose parents have graduated from college have a better chance of getting a degree themselves, research shows.”(more)