Adams County weighs options after state cuts to scholarship program; ACEC to pursue competitive application and seek county support

Adams County commissioners heard on Tuesday that the state is restructuring the Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative (COSI) and sharply reducing the matching funds that have supported the Adams County scholarship program since 2016.

The change will move COSI away from county allotments toward a competitive grant model for nonprofits and institutions of higher education, and reduce the frequency and size of state matches. Alicia Friendina, executive director of the Adams County Education Consortium (ACEC), told the board the redesign will mean smaller annual awards from the state and that state matching dollars may be available only once every four years.

Why it matters: Adams County has used money from its portion of the marijuana sales tax since February 2016 to match state scholarships and to fund wraparound student supports; commissioners and ACEC officials said those local funds have produced higher completion rates than the statewide average and that the state changes put that leverage at risk.

ACEC outlined how the county’s approach differed from the prior state model. “The county took an unusual approach — the only one in the state — to fund all four years,” Friendina said, describing a cohort model that prioritized completion over the larger but shorter-term distribution of single-year awards. The consortium said that approach reduced the number of annual recipients but raised completion: ACEC reported a four-to-five year completion rate of about 66 percent compared with the state average of 38 percent, and a…