A Community-Wide Promise to Austin Students

Working together to take the chance out of getting to and through college.

Austin 2030 seeks to increase the number of students in Austin earning a postsecondary credential and employed in a living-wage job by exploring, designing, and coordinating the launch of a college promise in Austin.

There is growing interest across PreK-12, Higher Education and workforce to boost degree and credential attainment. The state has provided significant funding through HB3 and HB8 to incentivize college and career readiness in PreK-12 and boost enrollment and completion rates at community college.

Leveraging this momentum, Austin 2030 has developed a three-phased Roadmap that outlines a pathway to an Austin Promise.

The Roadmap is a community-wide process to explore, design, launch, and sustain a college promise that will include place-based financial support to multiple higher education institutions, student supports, wraparound services, connections to internships and workforce and the fostering of a college-going culture.

During 2024-2025, Austin 2030 will host a series of discussions, community conversations, and learning experiences focused on the needs and opportunities for supporting postsecondary transitions. We will explore and learn from college promise leaders across Texas and around the country. We will also listen deeply at home to understand existing barriers as well as levers for change.

Over the next year, we will assess the community capacity, will, and resources - political, leadership, and financial - for this type of systems-level change in Austin.

Roadmap

A PATHWAY TO AN AUSTIN PROMISE

Phase I: Learning & Exploration - January 2024 - June 2025

• Listening to students and their families to understand needs and barriers to college success,

• Assessing public engagement and political will,

• Understanding the local landscape, including existing free-tuition and scholarship initiatives, and

• Research on, as well as site visits to, high-impact programs in Texas and other states to capture lessons learned and inform priorities and values for an Austin promise.

Phase II: Feasibility & Program Design - July 2025 - December 2026

• Feasibility study to explore revenue sources to ensure long-term financial sustainability,

• Advance work to support data sharing, research, evaluation, and monitoring,

• Promise Steering Committee overseas

  • Assessment of community readiness, capacity, and existing resources,

  • Program design (goals and outcomes, logic model, student supports, program requirements, participating higher education institutions, and eligibility), and

  • Decisions on organizational home (backbone organization) and governance structure.

Phase III: Implementation and Rollout - January 2027 - Summer 2028

• Fundraising for Austin Promise operations and promise scholarships,

• Development of student communication and outreach plan,

• Identify and launch inaugural Austin Promise cohort, and

• Evaluation and progress monitoring

What is a College Promise?

College promises create a college-going culture by reducing the cost of a college education, addressing other systemic barriers limiting postsecondary access and completion, and connecting students to career pathways that lead to living-wage jobs.

Scholarships alone are not enough.

Promise programs with the greatest impact:

• Provide financial resources,

• Include proven forms of student support,

• Offer wraparound services to guide students past common roadblocks,

• Nurture belonging and wellbeing, and

• Link students with workforce connections and work-based experiences.