Chuck Licis-Masson, Program Coordinator for Take Stock in Children and the Executive Director of the Monroe County Education Foundation, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the program.
With the cutbacks at the federal government, what could happen if the Department of Education goes away?
Licis-Masson said, “We are watching it, and it remains to be seen. The department really oversees a lot of the larger programs, federally and countrywide, like the Fulbright program. I know funding has been cut for the Fulbright program for students who are in college and do a broad program, but it also trickles down into all of our students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and there’s federal student aid that could possibly, I mean, we don’t know yet, but could be impacted. Our students rely on Pell grant money. So a student of ours, for example, who is low income, they could receive up to $7,500 a year in federal Pell grant money, which is money that’s not paid back. It’s not a loan, it’s a grant for our low income students to help them defray those costs, offset those costs for college, in addition to the tuition and local fees. If that goes away for our students, it’s another barrier for our kids, and we don’t like adding barriers or obstacles. We like taking them down so they have access to college and education. So we’ll watch that and see how that pans out. There might be some federal funding that trickles down into the state, and then how the state divvies that up into the different programs. It’s fast and furious in Washington, DC right now, and we’re all kind of waiting to see what happens, and I’m making some contingency plans if possible, plan B’s and plan C’s, and we’ll deal with it when it happens.”
Would the funding from Take Stock in Children be affected by federal cuts?
Licis-Masson said, “It shouldn’t, because that’s state. The state legislatures, they build it into their budget, the state budget. Whenever I go to Tallahassee and I talk to our local rep and local senator, but also the other state senators and state representatives there, there’s a strong support for Take Stock in Children because they know the impact the program has across the state and within the districts. We lift the graduation rates, its value added for very little cost in the entirety of the budget. So I don’t see that being in peril or in jeopardy, but it comes to the state and then down to the Take Stock in Children program, and then we receive a portion of that based on our enrollment.”
There is also a new push to change American school hours that could be coming from the Department of Health.
Licis-Masson said, “I’ve been in education for well over 20 years now, going on 30 years and what goes around comes around they say. We’ve had these conversations before about school start times. I remember, and not to sound like one of those people who walked uphill, both ways to school in six feet of snow, but I remember getting up bright and early. Our school start time was 7:30 and the big issue, though, is athletics. Our students are so involved in athletics, and if you move that start time to 8:30 and later, now you’re getting into athletic practice time and game time, and you’re creating for a very long day. So you’re really not solving a problem. You’re just shifting the sleep pattern and when the students are able to stay up later and do their homework and go to bed later, to get up later to go to school later. So it doesn’t really, in my opinion, make too much sense, and also think about schools and parent work obligations. Schools serve a purpose, also, not only to educate our youth, but it’s an opportunity. Our parents are comforted to know that their kids are in schools learning, and they’re supervised throughout the course of the day, and if you start moving those start times around with their work schedules, it could also create some issues. So my opinion, leave well enough alone.”
Take Stock in Children helps so many students.
Licis-Masson said, “We welcome our low income at risk students who are excelling academically. So they have to have a 2.0 minimum grade point average. What that means is they have to have C’s in their classes, minimally, no D’s or no F’s. So C’s and above, they have to have good attendance and good behavior. They have to meet economic guidelines as well. So a family of four can’t make more than around $70,000 for their federal income taxes and a family of four could be one parent, three children, or two parents and two children, two dependents, and that was a lower threshold before we had conversations with Florida Prepaid and Tallahassee, because we are such a county with a high cost of living, our salaries and earnings were not commensurate with the cost of living, what it costs to live down here for our families, and especially our low income families. So we use HUD values now between low and very low. So it’s about a 65% of HUD values and that’s a unique value in terms of median income across the state of Florida. So each county is a little bit different based on their median income, and it helped lift those thresholds a little bit to help open the door a little bit wider. It didn’t throw the barn door wide open, but it just gave it a little bit more opportunity for some of our most needy students and families in our communities.”
Each student will have a mentor.
Licis-Masson said, “We assign them a volunteer mentor who agrees to meet with a student one day a week for about 30 minutes during the school day and during the school year, and that volunteer community member meets with that student and talks about life skills and helps that student find answers to questions they may have, navigate middle school and high school. A mentor isn’t a tutor or a grade cop, so to speak, or a parent or a disciplinarian, but more of a sounding board, and someone who helps guide that student through any issues that he or she may have, but especially looking ahead to career options and what that student might like to do, but most importantly, self advocacy skills and how to communicate with adults and how to navigate life, all those skills that we take for granted, I think, in many cases, and we have to understand that that’s a learned skill in many cases, and we have to help our students learn those skills and the mentor is a tremendous asset to that program, to help them improve as they move forward.”
Mentors are still needed and often the relationship between mentor and student lasts a lifetime.
Licis-Masson said, “We still need mentors, because we have students who are waiting to come into the program, and these are students who qualify academically as well as economically, and we would love to have them to the program. These are first generation college bound students. So if you think about that, their parents did not go through college, or they’re from another country, and they’re here, they have residency, and they’re working to strive for the American dream, and they want the best for their children and they don’t know how to navigate the university landscape, or the post secondary education landscape, and Take Stock helps those students through that process. Also these are our families who are cleaning our hotel rooms and waiting on us in the restaurants and doing all those jobs to help our community run. It’s really hard for them to set aside funds for college for their kids. It’s $25,000 plus to send your kid for four years to a university. Take Stock in Children students receive, when they successfully complete the program, they receive access to a two plus two scholarship, which covers 60 college hours and 60 university hours for 120 total credit hours. Plus they have options of earning a two year dormitory plan to help with two years of housing at one of the 12 state universities on the mainland. So it’s a game changer for our kids and our families to help them earn those degrees. We’ve had 1,082 students go through our program totally since 2001 and 100% of our students always enroll in university or college, a few might go into military, but they defer their college education after a couple of years being in the military and 74% of our high school graduates who enter college will earn a degree, whether it’s an associate’s, a bachelor’s or a career technical certificate, which is four times higher than the national average for low income students. We’re making a tremendous difference with our kids.”
To be a mentor, it’s only 30 minutes a week.
Licis-Masson said, “Usually it’s during lunch, which, the high school, I think that those kids eat early, like at 11:15. It is a wonderful break from your day. You’re welcome to call me at my office, 305-293-1546, or visit the website and fill the information out. It is really rewarding. We have great mentors across the county. We even have those who are serving our county, Michelle Lincoln, Commissioner Lincoln is a mentor. She’s been a mentor for a long time, and naturally adores the program and adores the kids. We have mentors on our board, but we also have some great board members.”
The change Take Stock in Children can make is really monumental.
Licis-Masson said, “They dream of going off to college and earning a degree or a career certificate. One of our students at Coral Shores wants to go to lineman school to be an electric lineman. Unfortunately, he loses his Pell grant money when he does that, because it’s a private school, it’s not a public school, so the foundation has agreed to transfer his scholarship, which is a value of about $18,000 and the beauty of the scholarships, is when we purchase them, they’re inflation proof. So when we purchase these scholarships, we purchase them six to eight years out of when they mature, and it guarantees coverage of tuition and local fees at any state university or state college, regardless of where the tuition may go. Plus for every dollar we raise, the state matches, so it gives us even double buying power. But the cash value of that scholarship is applied to his tuition, which is pretty expensive. I think it’s around $30,000 for these linemen schools. So he’ll get a little bit more than half of that from us, and we’ll also contribute another seven grand towards his Pell money that he has lost. So that’ll reduce his obligation. He still has to fundraise on his own, which is, I think, appropriate. I think our students have to have a little skin in the game as well to work towards that education, so we’ll help our kids also do career technical education fields, whether it’s alignment, cosmetology, construction, plumbing, electrician, you name it, we’ll help them through that process.”
For more information, click here: https://monroecountyedfound.com/about-take-stock