Education

Every senior at 31 area high schools can go to community college for free under a new program called the Dallas County Promise. That’s more than 9,000 students eligible for free tuition regardless of grades or income level. The new initiative will pay for an associate’s degree or up to three years at a Dallas County Community College District campus. Students can then continue on tuition-free at UNT-Dallas or seek scholarships side aside for some of them at Southern Methodist University.

“It’s a great opportunity because it will save me and my family a lot of money,” said Grand Prairie High senior Angelica Estrada, 17. “My dad is the only one who works right now and Mom is our Uber while we’re in school.” Estrada, whose older sister is attending the University of Texas at Arlington, said free college has changed her game plan. She had planned to go straight to Sam Houston State University to pursue a criminal justice degree, but attending a DCCCD campus first makes more sense.

Many others who will benefit from the new program are expected to be students who otherwise wouldn’t have gone to college at all. The Dallas County Promise, an effort by DCCCD officials and the Dallas non-profit Commit, aims to boost the number of people with college degrees through free tuition, success coaches, and other efforts.

The “promise” is the commitment by the agencies to cobble together tuition funding for potentially thousands of students through federal grants, scholarships and other funding sources. “This is transformative for Dallas County,” said Pyeper Wilkins an associate vice chancellor and executive director of the DCCCD Foundation. “We have a tremendous opportunity to impact the education attainment levels here, and that means so much to the community. It means living-wage jobs.” The goal is simple: Let kids know that college is for anyone who wants it. But the approach is complex.

Successful Model

Dallas is modeling its program after the celebrated Tennessee Promise, which launched in 2014 and has enrolled more than 33,000 students in colleges, trade schools, or universities. Tennessee was the first state to champion a “college for all” effort by making community college free for high school seniors who take certain required steps, including fillings out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, or FAFSA, which helps schools and the government determine what kind of need-based grants, scholarships and other financial aid students are eligible to receive. Now Tennessee leads the nation as 75 percent of their graduating seniors fill out the federal financial aid form. Community colleges in that state saw enrollment of first-time freshmen jump by 30 percent since 2014 and public higher education institutions in general saw a collective 13 percent increase. North Texas officials expect federal aid to cover most of the tuition through the Dallas County Promise because most of the participating schools serve from predominately low-income neighborhoods. The DCCCD Foundation is working on scholarships and donations to help cover whatever gap remains.

To get free tuition for three years or until the completion of an associate degree, students at participating schools must take a “pledge” by Jan. 31 saying they want to participate in the program. Then they must complete their FAFSA and DCCCD application by March 15.

Sign-Up Surge

Israel Cordero, Dallas ISD superintendent, said he’s amazed by the steady rush of students already signing on to the program. “This could be life-changing.” Cordero said “That means every single kid from these high schools know on the front end that they can go to one of the seven community colleges and earn an associate’s degree at no charge to them or their family.”

The Promise effort is organizing community groups, counselors and others to focus on entire senior classes to fill out the FAFSA form regardless of whether they intend to go to DCCCD or another school. The financial aid form is the secret sauce for getting kids into college. But it can be complicated and intimidating as it asks for parents’ income tax forms and other financial information. Education advocates say just getting teens over the FAFSA paperwork hurdle makes it more likely that they’ll attend college. In 2016, about 64 percent of Dallas ISD seniors who filled out the forms enrolled in college compared with about 24 percent of those who didn’t fill out the forms, according to the Commit officials.

But many students don’t bother applying. They assume college isn’t for them because they aren’t the most academically successful students or think they can’t pay for college, Wilkins said. Local officials say they’re already seeing results from working with the area community groups and schools to get the Dallas County Promise started. The rate of seniors filling out the FAFSA and other financial forms has jumped from 48 percent to 56 percent, they said. They hope to see greater gains next year.

Much at Stake

Grand Prairie High School senior Gabby Hernandez admits she wasn’t excited about the prospect of tackling the FAFSA form by herself, in part because so much is at stake with a single form that affects how affordable college is for her. Even though she hopes to attend the University of Texas or Texas A&M University, Hernandez- like all other Grand Prairie seniors- will get help on her FAFSA form at a college organized as part of the Dallas County Promise. “I’m the first one in my family to go through this, so I don’t want to do something wrong that affects how I go on to this next chapter in my life.” said Hernandez, 17.

Ayerim Montero, a college advisor for Grand Prairie ISD, said she’s already seeing a difference in the way her students look at their future possibilities. Too often, she’s seen kids opted for no college at all if a four-year university wasn’t accessible. But now she’s hearing more students putting community college first, even those who previously said they weren’t going to college because of the guarantee to have college paid. “Now even my last-minute students already have a game plan in place.” She said “They are looking at DCCCD and the courses and know what they’re doing after high school.”

Participating Schools

There are presently30 schools participating:

 Adamson

 Bryan Adams

 Carter

 Cedar Hill

 Cedar Hill Collegiate

 Conrad

 DeSoto

 Early College HS at Brookhaven

 Grand Prairie

 Hillcrest

 Gilliam Collegiate Academy

 Kimball

 Lakeview Centennial

 Lancaster

 Lassiter

 Early College

 Lincoln, Madison

 Molina

 North Dallas

 Pinkston

 Roosevelt

 Samuell

 Seagoville

 South Grand Prairie

 South Oak Cliff

 Spruce

 Sunset

 Thomas Jefferson

 Trini Garza Echs at Mountain View

 Wilmer-Hutchins

 W T White.

GED

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Click the above link for a list of locations and phone numbers that provide GED classes in the Carrollton, TX area.

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If you are in the US or Canada your GED is proof that you have completed high-school level education and the vast majority of employers require employees to have this. If you were unfortunate not to receive it when in high school it is never too late, as you can take the tests at any time in your life, but you will probably want a refresher course to remind yourself of all the subject material.

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