Pittsburgh Promise says class of 2028 will be last to receive financial help
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A scholarship to help students in Pittsburgh Public Schools afford college is expected to end within the next five years.
The Pittsburgh Promise says the class of 2028 will be the last to receive the financial help.
According to a letter from the Pittsburgh Promise to families in Pittsburgh Public Schools, it doesn't have the funding to continue past the class of 2028. The students currently in eighth grade will be the last ones to receive it.
The program started back in 2008 with the goal of funding an entire generation of students. Currently, the Pittsburgh Promise has $265 million for the next few years.
It does not believe it has the funding from the private sector to exceed that goal for the future. Its last class will mark 21 years of the promise. In the 2015-16 school year, it realized 2028 would be the end of the program.
For former recipients like James Hill, the scholarship helped him during his secondary education at Point Park University. He said it's sad to see this come to an end but looks at the positive of how many children were able to benefit from it.
"I think you would be hard-pressed to find any scholarship that is eternal or anything like that. I'm just so happy that so many kids got to benefit from it and many more through the class of 2028 will be able to benefit from it. Change is inevitable and I don't think that anybody thought it would never end. It was a wonderful program that did a lot of good while it was here and I think we can be thankful for that," Hill said.
According to the Pittsburgh Promise, more than 11,000 students received funding totaling more than $170 million in scholarship money. Its data said high school graduation rates went up by 14 percent from 2011 to 2021.
