Ten days ago, the University announced that it would be giving free tuition to students at Jefferson High School in North Portland who fulfilled certain requirements, including getting a year of community college credits – with a B average – and qualifying for the federal Pell grant program.
This is coming six months after Jefferson announced it would be converting its structure after several years of being rated “academically unacceptable” by the state’s board of education and just about a year after news arose that a majority of the Portland Public Schools’ board would vote to shut Jefferson down as a neighborhood school.
Jefferson’s class of 2015 — incoming freshmen this fall — will be required to apply to the school to attend, as a part of the new structure, and expected to take classes at Portland Community College in junior and senior years. For years, students there have taken the opportunity to take classes at the neighboring PCC Cascade campus, but the institutionalization of this student program is a large part of what drove the University to offer the financial aid.
The other large part has to do mostly with helping first-generation students to succeed. University President Richard Lariviere, who signed the proposal, told the Portland Observer that many of the Jefferson students “will be the first in their families to graduate from college, an accomplishment I know firsthand.”
Though we appreciate the effort and applaud the attempt to aid in Oregon’s ailing public education system, there are significant problems with the proposal and certain planks of it make for a sad public relations move.
To begin with, the scholarship extends to cover just three years of tuition and fees after the Pell and Oregon Opportunity grants, with the intention being that students could graduate with three years at the University after transferring the year from PCC.
Nothing to shake a stick at, but consider the facts involved. Students who qualify for the grants have approximately $10,000 per year already covered, while students who both qualify for those grants and transfer in with a 3.0 GPA from a year of community college credits would qualify for Pathway Oregon and could have even more of their expenses covered.
Not to mention the fact that forcing these students through this fast track may prove precarious and leaves further questions.
What happens if these students choose to change majors? What if one were to select a major that doesn’t fit in the traditional four-year track, such as architecture?
To leave these options out would be to create an even worse situation — to suggest that these Jefferson transfers should be considered something different from other students.
These constraints, in consideration with the minimal benefits mentioned above, raise the question of motive: why is it that the University wants to do this?
And it’s for the publicity.
What’s wrong with helping the students at Jefferson, even if they’re doing it for the positive press? Well, many schools in Oregon are suffering, many of which have the same conditions Jefferson has gone through.
Madras High School in the Jefferson County School District was rated “low” or “unacceptable” by the Oregon Department of Education each year from 2002 to 2007, also nearly being shut down as a neighborhood school.
Several high schools throughout Jefferson’s very same district faced similar levels of poor report cards from the state and were not made this offer.
We don’t propose making a deal like this for each and every Oregon public high school. Instead, it’s about recognizing that the problems associated stretch outside of North Portland.
If the problem is with first-generation students succeeding, a scholarship could be offered to first-generation students. If it’s with engaging low-income areas, work could be done with the other universities in the state to promote similar programs in those areas.
But avoid blowing smoke around assisting students at one school as solving the first-generation student crisis in Oregon.
The PR problems associated with the football team have offered a valuable lesson: sometimes, it’s best to just tell the truth.