Lawmakers in Olympia may be one step closer to making college-bound scholarships available to thousands of additional students.
A little financial help for a new high-school graduate can spell the difference between college or no college. Washington’s College Bound Scholarship program is designed to provide that needed boost. But for about 7,000 young people annually, a few failing grades early in high school can disqualify them for the scholarship, no matter how hard they work to catch up by the time they graduate. Representative Steve Bergquist, a high-school teacher when he’s not in Olympia, is sponsoring legislation to help those kids on the borderline get a second chance.
“Currently out of those 7,000 students, each year only about 700 go on after high school to further their education. We can do better. We put up so many barriers to these students’ success. This is one of those barriers that I think we can take down for our students to have the opportunity to succeed after high school,” Bergquist said.
Bergquist, a Democrat from Renton in Washington’s 11th Legislative District, wrote a bill that would allow students who graduate with less than a 2.0 GPA to compete for a College Bound Scholarship to a community or technical college. His House Bill 1687 passed out of the House with a strong bipartisan vote and was scheduled for a hearing Tuesday in the Senate. Lawmakers have until March 10 to give their final OK and send it along to the governor.