After Financial Miss, Say Yes Considers Changing Scholarship Criteria

A Guilford County organization that has guaranteed college scholarships for many local students says it's facing a budget shortfall.

Say Yes To Education Guilford says it will have to reduce the money it will pay out to local graduates.

Officials say they have around $42 million in private commitments and pledges. But one thing is clear about their scholarship program: the current model isn't sustainable. The organization had originally budgeted to give about $1 million to the class of 2016. The final payout? Around $6 million.

Chuck Cornelio with Say Yes Guilford says they're looking at changing the program's criteria.

“We had information for example on how many kids graduated from the Guilford County Schools in the prior years,” says Cornelio. “What we didn't have at that point was a good number of how many of them went to college, what their income levels were, so the result of having a higher income is that you get less tuition aid elsewhere. Therefore, in this last dollar tuition program you end up with higher payouts from Say Yes.”

Organizers say other factors also included more students choosing to attend four-year colleges over two-year colleges.

Guilford County students are the first in the South to benefit from the Say Yes to Education campaign.

The organization also provides what are called wraparound services, like free tutoring or mobile health clinics. District and organization officials recently selected twelve “launch” schools to begin this next phase of the program. Cornelio says those programs will continue to move forward.

Say Yes Guilford is apologizing to families for the uncertainty over scholarship amounts for kids in the classes of 2016 and 2017.

Cornelio says the new model may affect some kids differently than others, depending on what criteria they change.

The organization says it will release more information to families by the end of the month.

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