Florida county hurt by pandemic offers tuition to graduates

After two years of a pandemic that battered the workforce of this tourism-dependent county in central Florida, leaders had a present for departing highschool graduates this month: free tuition at both the area people school or the county technical college.

Osceola County commissioners introduced earlier this yr that they might put aside $12 million in federal COVID-19 funding to pay the schooling of any 2022 highschool graduate who needed to go to Valencia Faculty or the county technical college.

“I didn’t have anyone to pay for my school,” Madilyn Hilder, an Osceola Excessive senior who lives along with her grandmother, instructed the Orlando Sentinel. “Cash was all the time the factor that was going to maintain me from going to varsity.”

Due to this system, Osceola Prosper, Hilder mentioned she’s going to now begin her research in elementary schooling at Valencia Faculty in August, with plans to later switch to the College of Central Florida.

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The objective of Osceola Prosper is to spice up schooling ranges previous highschool and lift the prospects for better-paying jobs for Osceola residents, mentioned Brandon Arrington, chairman of the county fee.

“I feel lots of people assume, ‘If I am going to varsity, I’m going to have $100,000 price of debt,’” Arrington mentioned.

Osceola County is house to giant numbers of tourism staff for Orlando space motels, eating places and theme parks. Throughout the early months of pandemic-related enterprise closures, the county had the very best unemployment fee in Florida, reaching 14.4% in 2020.

The county beforehand had supplied $500 scholarships to encourage college students to review at Valencia Faculty. The brand new program will cowl the $3,000 a yr prices of learning full time on the neighborhood school.

As a result of the out there funds are restricted, this system is just for 2022 graduates.

Steering counselors at Osceola County’s excessive colleges mentioned they’ve been having extra conversations with college students about persevering with their schooling.

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These conversations often begin with, “Now you’ve this feature, what are your ideas?” mentioned Kendyl Bass, the school and profession specialist at Osceola Excessive. “It has modified lots of people’s minds.”