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The Dallas County Community College District (DCCCD) teamed up with a nonprofit named Commit in late-2017 with the hopes of sending every graduating senior in local area to community college for free. The program, the Dallas County Promise, has since seen overwhelming success in the first year with 2,841 high school graduates from the 31 area high schools completing the proper pledge and financial aid forms to attend college.
The students began class this week at DCCCD campuses or the University of North Texas Dallas, a partner school.
According to the Dallas Morning News, that led to a 40 percent growth in DCCCD enrollment and a 30 percent increase in enrollment at UNT Dallas.
DCCCD Chancellor Joe May spoke on the importance of the program.
“Getting these kids in college when they didn’t have plans to go, or didn’t think that they had a way to go, that they couldn’t afford it, it’s transformational,” May said. “When I graduated from high school, there were plenty of good jobs out there — where someone could buy a house, make a good living — without an education beyond high school. That’s just not the case anymore.”
One local student, Jose Alvarez of Grand Prairie High School who was his senior class president, also spoke on how the program has helped him and his classmates.
“I saw how this could help me, this could really help a lot of my friends,” he said. “We don’t have to have students working at McDonald’s or at the mall or in construction — some of the jobs that a lot of people get right out of high school. … Imagine how much we as Dallas, Texas, will grow, if we have people who are more educated that live here.”
With the success of the early launch of the program, The Promise has added 12 more schools in Dallas County with the hopes of getting their graduating seniors prepared to attend free college in the fall 2019 semester.
