It’s a wonderful thing when a plan works, and the latest example is the success of the Rhode Island Promise Scholarship program, a signature piece of legislation pushed by Gov. Gina M. Raimondo.
The impact of Rhode Island Promise is clear – a nearly 50 percent increase in the number of first-time, full-time students enrolled this fall at the Community College of Rhode Island (and there may be more, since they’re still counting), a total so far of 1,478.
The governor rightly saw financial need as an impediment to a significant number of young Rhode Islanders earning a first step up on the higher education ladder, especially for those students who might be the first in their families to attend college. CCRI officials are happy to see the increase, since it reverses a recent drop in enrollment, the result they believe, of the improving economy, which depresses the perceived need of a college education.
At the same time, the success of the program has attracted private buy-in to Rhode Island Promise, with the Hassenfeld Family Foundation making a $650,000 gift to support the roughly 800 scholarship students also eligible for federal Pell Grants. It is the largest in the school’s history and allows each such student the opportunity to earn up to $500 for meeting a number of simple “college-success milestones.”
While the Rhode Island Promise didn’t start out as a public-private partnership, it’s a great example of how private philanthropy has the potential to supercharge smart public policy. Let’s hope it’s not the last time this sort of synergy occurs.