Adams County to apply for COSI Achieve, continue support for existing scholarship cohorts

Lindsey Melki, chief of staff for Adams County, told commissioners the county will apply for the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative (COSI) Achieve grant, proceed with disbursement of a previously awarded Launch grant and apply for the Matching Student Scholarship (MSS) to support the remaining cohorts already enrolled.

The request follows a staff presentation on changes to COSI’s grant structure and how those changes would affect Adams County’s decade-old scholarship program. Lisha Frandina, executive director of the Adams County Education Consortium, told the commission that state changes are reducing direct county matches and moving COSI funding to nonprofits through a competitive process.

Frandina said, “we were putting in around 500,000 a year, and the state was matching another 500,000.” She also told the board the county has “a fund balance of $930,000” and that the scholarship fund “is bringing in about $450,000 a year.” Staff said those balances and revenue will be used to maintain current cohort commitments while the county applies for the new grant opportunities.

Why it matters: commissioners repeatedly described the county scholarship as a targeted effort reaching mainly first-generation and low-income students and emphasized that shrinking state matches would reduce award size or the number of recipients unless the county increases its match.…