Chairman Catania and members of the Committee on Education, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Soumya Bhat, and I am the Education Finance and Policy Analyst at the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. DCFPI engages in research and public education on the fiscal and economic health of the District of Columbia, with a particular emphasis on policies that affect low- and moderate-income residents.
I am here today to offer input on Bill 20-528, the DC Promise Establishment Act of 2013. DCFPI strongly agrees with the premise of this legislation, that college should be accessible and affordable to everyone. At the same time, we are concerned that the provisions of this bill could be very costly for the District, which could make it difficult to fund other education priorities, such as updating the school funding formula and adding a weight for low-income students. To help think through strategies to contain the costs of this proposal, we submit the following recommendations for the Committee’s consideration:
- Narrow the income eligibility guidelines of DC Promise to prioritize our neediest students.
- Reconsider the structure and timing of the DC Promise funding awards to cover costs of attendance before all federal financial aid is exhausted.
- Add a stipulation that participating institutions of higher education and individual programs must be accredited.
- Track students receiving DC Promise funding to generate data on impacts of the program.
DCFPI agrees that all DC children should have the opportunity to succeed in school and know college is attainable and affordable. Moreover, there are several commendable provisions in this bill. For example, it creates an incentive for families to stay in the DC school system, which is indeed an important thing for our city. Other parts of the proposal — for example, allowing students to take up to five years for college completion, the recognition of the equivalent of secondary school diploma and the additional $10,000 per year for foster care children — take into account the challenges that DC families face when pursuing post-secondary education.
To read the complete testimony, click here.