Getting behind a good idea
Published 2:52 pm Monday, July 27, 2009
With all the shouting on Capitol Hill over health-care reform, the hearing-aid industry might come away the biggest winner. Yet even as the partisan and even intraparty factions jostle for air time to shred each other, some members of Congress of different political stripes are finding meaningful common ground.
Recent example: Fellow Washingtonians Jay Inslee, a Democrat, and Dave Reichert, a Republican, are co-sponsoring a House bill that would help low-income but high-potential students get into college, and succeed once they get there.
Underscoring the bipartisan partnership behind the bill, the College Access and Completion Act of 2009 doesn’t provide direct scholarships, but partners with nonprofit organizations by supporting approaches that are already working. The Inslee-Reichert bill would create a grant program to help provide academic support, mentoring and other support services to prepare low-income high-school students for college, and keep that support in place during college.
That last piece is particularly important because, according to Inslee’s office, only 20 percent of today’s lowest-income college students are projected to graduate with a four-year degree by 2012, compared with 68 percent of the highest-income students.
Family and other support systems can be lacking for students who have grown up without financial security, and effective mentoring can help keep them focused. It’s a proven way to break cycles of poverty by improving earning power, and establishing the belief within families that a college education is valuable.
One nonprofit whose work could be supported by such grants is the Issaquah-based College Success Foundation, led by Bob Craves, the Costco co-founder and former chairman of the state Higher Education Coordinating Board.
“Nonprofits and foundations are playing an increasingly important role in the education of low-income students as the cost of higher education increases,” Craves noted in a statement of support for the Inslee-Reichert bill. “These programs already have proven track records.”
And that’s another part of this idea’s beauty: Rather than reinventing the wheel, it builds on what already works. Grants would have to be matched with money from non-federal sources, ensuring multiple stakes in a successful outcome. Organizations receiving grants also would be subject to an annual reporting requirement so that their performance can be tracked.
This and other sensible ideas offer a welcome break from the ideological wars that get most of the news coverage. Behind the scenes, reasonable people — even members of Congress — can still put aside their differences and unite behind a good idea.
