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Funds would help Akron public school grads pay for UA
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal
Published on Friday, Feb 08, 2008
Mayor Don Plusquellic has proposed selling Akron's sewer system to private investors to create a fund that would assist the city's public high school graduates with college tuition and fees and trade-school costs.
Calling his proposal the ''Akron Plan for the 21st Century,'' Plusquellic said all Akron public high school graduates who have been in the system for a certain number of years could receive the money to attend either the University of Akron or a technical or advanced trade school in the city.
''If our kids are going to compete, if our community is going to be successful, we have to let young people know it doesn't end in the 12th grade,'' the mayor said during remarks at the close of his State of the City address at Tangier restaurant Thursday.
Plusquellic, 58, who is serving his sixth term as Akron's mayor, said the city's sewer system is worth $100 million to $250 million.
The system has about 90,000 customers, handles 75 million gallons of sewage per day and maintains more than 1,054 miles of sewer lines. Thirty pump stations and a plant along the Cuyahoga River handle waste from Akron and its suburbs.
Plusquellic said he would call together a group of community representatives in the next 30 days to begin drawing up a business plan on the possible sale of the sewer system.
''City sewer systems are run privately all over the country,'' said the mayor, who did not offer specific examples. ''They are no different than any other public utility.''
Plusquellic said the city of Akron revolutionized public education in 1840 by creating a publicly funded school system known as the Akron Plan, which was later adopted by the state of Ohio and eventually other school districts around the nation.
But back then, students mainly needed to learn to read and write.
''Those days are over,'' the mayor said. ''I would suggest we are in a new era.''
The new Akron Plan, he said, was inspired by a program in Michigan called the Kalamazoo Promise. Kalamazoo high school graduates get their tuition and mandatory fees paid at public colleges from a trust fund.
''New homes started springing up in Kalamazoo and property values increased,'' Plusquellic said. ''People started moving back to Kalamazoo to help their children succeed.''
The mayor said he had discussed the college-fee program with Dr. Judy Hummel, executive director of the Summit Education Initiative.
Hummel said the idea would be that the fund would pay the difference between scholarships and grants received by students and the actual cost of tuition and fees.
This financial aid and tuition gap has increased in recent years, she said.
''Our kids are going into a much higher rate of debt in order to pay for college than ever before,'' she said. The actual cost faced by students ''will stop them in their tracks because they do not have that dollar difference nor do their families.''
Hummel praised Plusquellic for bringing his idea to a public forum.
''For the mayor to talk about this as a citywide endeavor and investing in the future is just huge,'' she said.
Specifics on the proposed sewer-system sale and the tuition-assistance program were not available.
Essentially, though, the money from the sewer-system sale would go into a fund and the tuition aid would then come from interest earned by the fund.
Plusquellic said the city would work to structure a deal on the sale of the sewer system to protect the interests of citizens.
''We can do this,'' Plusquellic said. ''It's a great opportunity to put money up front and make this system work to make certain every single solitary student has an opportunity that many of us were afforded in my lifetime.''
The mayor said that unfortunately, many middle-class students ''are the ones that get shoved out.'' That is where ''the real pressure is now. This isn't just for the poorest of the poor. Middle-class kids are getting shoved out. So those folks in Ellet, Firestone Park and Goodyear Heights may want to pay attention to this.''
David A. Lieberth, deputy mayor for administration, said Plusquellic has been thinking about this idea for four years.
''The only legacy he wants is to find a way that graduates of Akron Public Schools can go to the University of Akron,'' Lieberth said.
In 2005, he said, of the 1,556 students who graduated from Akron schools, 34 percent went to Ohio colleges and 10 percent went to out-of-state schools.
Lieberth said the plan would require students to first get all possible financial grants and scholarships, and then the city would supply the rest of the money.
Essentially, the idea is ''there isn't a young person who would attend Akron Public Schools who would not be able to get a degree for financial reasons,'' he said.
Lieberth said this is the first time in the nation that a municipality has looked to sell a publicly owned asset ''for the purpose of reinvesting the money in a communitywide scholarship program for college. That is what is new and different.''
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Mayor Don Plusquellic has proposed selling Akron's sewer system to private investors to create a fund that would assist the city's public high school graduates with college tuition and fees and trade-school costs.
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