There are many illnesses in this world, and for every illness, there is an antidote. Yet we as a society tend to think of illnesses in a physical context. But what about those non-physical illnesses, in particular, poverty? How can such a complex social problem be solved? Obviously, being social in nature, poverty is too complex of an issue to be fixed one dimensionally. Instead, it is like that oversized couch that sits in your living room: It seems as though it arrived without any effort, but when it comes time to throw it out, you need a team of people to maneuver it out of your door.
While poverty will require a “team” to “move” it out of society, the anchor to that team and one place to start ending poverty is education. That is why the University of Toledo’s Blue and Gold Scholar program (or UT Guarantee), and programs similar to it, are necessary elements to ending poverty in Ohio.
The Scholarship program grants full-tuition to students from Ohio’s 22 poorest, underperforming school districts who obtain a 3.0 GPA or higher throughout their high school career. The scholarship is given on a “need-based” basis.
Although it has only been in place for one semester, the program has already witnessed successes. The most notable accomplishment is that the Blue and Gold scholars achieved an 84.3 percent retention rate — that is 0.1 percent better than the university’s average retention rate minus the Blue and Gold scholars.
While there was much controversy surrounding the program before it went into effect, in terms of the impact the program will have on both the Blue and Gold scholars and on other UT students, community members should know that it’s not beginners luck — at least not if everyone does their part.
The fact that the first group of Blue and Gold scholars did exceptionally well, given they did not have time to seriously prepare academically for the demands of higher education, shows that, once the program becomes widely recognized in those 22 districts, students will begin to compete to get into the program. High school students from these poor communities will begin to take their academics more seriously and see education as a way out of poverty.
There has been long-lasting debate that urban schools suffer from grade inflation — that is, teachers give their students good grades so they can get into college, even if the students don’t deserve those grades. Many may argue that the Blue and Gold Scholar program only encourages grade inflation; however, that may not be the case. In fact, the program might be able to help end grade inflation. If the students become self-motivated because they know there are scholarship dollars out there to help them, they won’t need their teachers’ help in earning higher marks. After all, the whole reason grade inflation happens is because teachers do not want to fail a large number of their students, and, in turn, they lower their standards. However, if the students take it upon themselves to raise their own standards, the teachers will have no choice but to follow suit.
Hopefully, more students from these neglected districts will find hope in the Blue and Gold program and education, in general. More importantly, we hope communities will begin to see hope in these students and break out of the mental construct that views “mediocrity” as something based on geographic regions.
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