Minnesota is helping people who have been in foster care pay for college

CATHY WURZER: For the first time, Minnesota is helping people who've been in foster care pay the full cost of attendance at public, private, and tribal colleges across the state. It's a grant program that's ushering in a new class of college students who historically face significant barriers in pursuit of a post-secondary education. Nicole Ki reports.

NICOLE KI: Travis Mathews grew up in Grand Rapids group homes as a teenager. At 18, he became too old for foster care. He was on his own and unsure of his future.

TRAVIS MATTHEWS: You're coming out of care with no job. They didn't transition me into a job. They didn't transition me into anything. They almost transitioned me into homelessness.

NICOLE KI: But Matthews got a break. His hard work in school helped him win a scholarship at his dream college, Hamline University. He wanted to become a lawyer. The catch, though, was going $40,000 in debt to pursue a college degree.

TRAVIS MATTHEWS: That wasn't including if they upped tuition. That wasn't cost of inflation-- whatever. That didn't include any of that, so at least $10,000 every year, and I was just planning on pulling loans every year for that.

NICOLE KI: Minnesota's helping fund college for people emerging from foster care who struggle to pay for extra costs associated with school. The grants cover tuition and fees, books, housing and transportation, or the last dollar money left over after scholarships and federal financial aid are exhausted. Matthews is now one of more than 480 fosters since last fall who have received the financial aid. Advocates like Hannah Planalp helped push for the grants. She says the program is the first of its kind in the nation to cover full cost of attendance for fosters.

HANNAH PLANALP: And what we found is that fosters often don't have someone, first of all, who's either cheering them on to go to college or who has the knowledge to know how to access those systems.

NICOLE KI: The grants are designed to reduce barriers to financial aid. Office of Higher Education Grant Administrator Adam Johnson said instead of filling out multiple forms for financial aid, all fosters have to do is check a box on the FAFSA form to qualify for the grants.

ADAM JOHNSON: So the hope is that obviously that more fosters will see college as an opportunity and then will be able to succeed without having to worry about the financial aspect of the process.

NICOLE KI: Johnson said the program has been wildly successful. As part of the 2021 Fostering Higher Education Act, the grants are backed by about $3.8 million of state funding per year. Since last fall, the program has granted more than $2 million to fosters. And for those who have received the financial aid like Matthews, the grants allow for more breathing room. He's able to delegate more time to internships and schoolwork rather than worrying about paying rent and phone bills.

TRAVIS MATTHEWS: Those are all student service offices--

NICOLE KI: Matthews is giving me a tour of Hamlin's West Hall where he works at the Dean of Students Office. A friend passing by congratulates him on his election as student body president.

TRAVIS MATTHEWS: Oh, thank you. Yeah. Thank God it's over.

NICOLE KI: While he has found his place in college, Matthews said fosters need more support to adjust to campus life. Additional funding to provide financial literacy education and more money for the grants are currently being considered at the Capitol. Advocates say all that's left to do is to get more fosters in the grant program and let them dream in a way they've not done before. Nicole Ki, MPR News, Saint Paul.

CATHY WURZER: And Nicole Ki is with us in studio to talk more about her reporting. Welcome, Nicole.

NICOLE KI: Hey, Cathy. Thanks for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Thanks for being here. So you report that there are barriers facing former foster kids in getting to college and paying for it. How big is the gap between former foster kids who make it through college and those who are not foster kids and have made it through college?

NICOLE KI: It's a significant gap. Around 3% to 4% of fosters make it through a four year college according to the National Foster Youth Institute. That compares with about 38% of adults 25 and older that have a bachelor's degree, and that includes 14% who also have obtained a graduate and professional degree. That information comes from Pew Research Center.

Now, if you're looking at Minnesota students who graduate within the standard four years in high school, fosters were the least likely to graduate, even less likely than homeless students. So these new grants definitely have the potential of making a big impact.

CATHY WURZER: So these grants cover tuition, room and board, books to attend any Minnesota college or university?

NICOLE KI: Yes. There is a list of colleges that are participating in this program. The program recognizes that the cost of college is significant, so the money is meant to go to tuition, room and board, transportation, books, living expenses, and that's all after scholarships and federal aid is exhausted. So those grants can be used to go to any Minnesota State University, University of Minnesota campus, public community and technical colleges, and participating tribal colleges and private institutions.

I want to point out that other financial aid programs have existed before this program, like the Education and Training Voucher Program, which is provided in over 30 states, including Minnesota. The difference is, advocates say, is that these Fostering Independence grants-- they're called FIG for short-- are the most comprehensive and easiest to access in the country.

CATHY WURZER: What do some of the people talked to say to others who look at this and say, wow, these are really generous grants? What's their response to that?

NICOLE KI: Yeah. I spoke to Hoang Murphy who's the founder of Foster Advocates. That's the nonprofit that helped push the legislation for these grants in 2021. And he was a foster himself. He pointed out to me that sometimes fosters get labeled as resilient, but that can really be code for a person without a safety net. Here's what he said.

HOANG MURPHY: We're often told that fosters are tough or that they're resilient. What people don't see, the negative side of that, is that then we're being told that we have to have grit. We have to be tough. But I don't want young people to have to be tougher than they already are. I think they're tough enough. What I want them to be able to do is dream. And now what FIG presents is an opportunity that the only limit to their ability to pursue post-secondary is how much they can envision for their own futures and how much they can work towards achieving that.

CATHY WURZER: Now, you talked to Travis who was able to take advantage of this new fostering independence grant right out of high school, right? What about fosters who are now adults?

NICOLE KI: I'll give you one example. I met a single mom who lives in Saint Cloud raising three children. Her name is Katelyn Owens. She's 25 and had been in foster care at a young age between Alexandria and Anoka. Student loans and a lack of resources, being a mom, prevented her from completing college in 2015. But now, she's using the grants as an opportunity to go back to school to become a nurse and pursue her dream of running a nursing home or a group home.

KATELYN OWENS: It's the least that they owe foster children. We go through a lot being in foster care so to give us an opportunity to get an education-- I feel like I'm just blessed to be able to be a part of it.

CATHY WURZER: And she's what, in a second semester right now?

NICOLE KI: Yeah. She's in her second semester studying medical coding at Anoka Technical College.

CATHY WURZER: Good for her. No program is problem free, right? How is this going?

NICOLE KI: The administrator who oversees FIG at the Office of Higher Education said the program has been really successful. It's partly because of a data sharing agreement between their office and Minnesota's Department of Human Services which helps make it easier to flag anyone who has been in foster care and might be eligible for the grants.

The significant part to highlight, though, is the grants are easy to apply to. There are no extra forms needed to apply. Fosters just have to check a box on the FAFSA form that they've been in foster care, and their grant money will be automatically processed with their college's financial aid package, though there are some challenges advocates have brought up.

They say record keeping of fosters in the system is not always comprehensive, and sometimes have led to delays for fosters who don't have access to their paperwork that detail their history in foster care. But it's something advocates are still working to improve.

CATHY WURZER: OK. So before you go here, I know that the funding for the program was signed into law back in 2021, so these are some of the first students to benefit. What's next in the story here for them?

NICOLE KI: So the program was initially launched last fall semester, so it won't be until fall of 2024 where we'll see maybe the first class of students who may have gone through a two year program. The act is a promise from the state of Minnesota to invest $3.8 million a year into the grant program, but they are asking for more money for the program. So we'll be keeping an eye on that as the legislative session continues.

CATHY WURZER: Right. Of course, they're writing the budget here in the next few weeks. All right, Nicole. Thank you.

NICOLE KI: Thank you.

CATHY WURZER: You can read Nicole Ki's full article-- mprnews.org for that.