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Coming from a low-income family, Annabella McGinley-King thought Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars program would enable her to afford college.
In middle school, she enrolled in the state-run program, which covers the equivalent of public school tuition at Indiana colleges and universities for eligible low-income students. Like many other students who have enrolled since 1990, McGinley-King was tripped up by the requirements imposed on recipients.
While over 45,000 Hoosiers have received credentials or degrees from the scholarship, according to a 2021 report from the Indiana Commission of Higher Education, recent data indicates that the majority of students struggle to meet the requirements for 21st Century Scholars through high school.
Statewide for the class of 2023, 39 percent of scholars completed their ninth grade activities, and 7 percent completed all of the high school requirements by October 2022, according to commission data. The proportion has declined since the start of the pandemic.
To boost those figures and to reverse a decline in college-going among young Hoosiers, Indiana officials are retooling it.
Jade Thomas is a summer reporting intern covering education in the Indianapolis area. Contact Jade at jthomas@chalkbeat.org.
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