Aug. 17—A new year for Niagara Falls City School District is right around the corner, but plans are in the works for a new program benefiting students the following year.
Superintendent Mark Laurrie plans to spend part of the upcoming school year drumming up support for the Say Yes Niagara Falls program. It will be the first expansion of the successful Say Yes Buffalo program that gives scholarships to Buffalo Public School and charter school students.
“It’s a game changer,” said Laurrie. “It’s a huge economic driver for our community.”
Say Yes CEO David Rust said State Assemblywoman Crystal Peoples-Stokes suggested it expand into Niagara Falls and ended up working with Laurrie to see if there was interest. They have been working together for the past year, with a planned rollout of the program for the 2025-26 school year.
“We were very interested in expanding our efforts,” Rust said. “It’s good for the region, community and the economy.”
Starting in 2011, Say Yes Buffalo has given scholarships to students, without respect to their parent’s income, which can go toward 74 public colleges in the SUNY and CUNY systems and 107 private colleges nationwide. SUNY Niagara and Niagara University are two such colleges accepting the scholarships.
According to the latest five-year estimate of census data from 2018 to 2022, 39% of Niagara Falls children under 18 live below the poverty line. Of the 6,324 enrolled in the district during the 2022-23 school year, 4,662, or 74%, are considered economically disadvantaged.
Compared to Buffalo, whose public schools enrolled 27,700 students in 2023, 84% of students are economically disadvantaged and 30% in Buffalo live below the poverty line. In a given year, the program supports more than 20,000 students and has approximately 2,500 students accessing these scholarships.
The exact perimeters for who can qualify for the program still have to be worked out, like a student who arrives in the district in the 12th grade will not be eligible. Buffalo students can qualify for scholarships if they have been in the district since the 9th grade, but they would only have 65% of tuition covered by a scholarship compared to 100% if they have been there since kindergarten.
“This is hope, expectation, and change for the community,” Rust said, with the program removing the large financial barrier to higher education. “It comes with access and choice — if you want an apprenticeship, great. If you want a postgraduate certificate, great.”
Say Yes Buffalo has 16 pillars of work to help increase student success in its programming. Laurrie plans on only including three of those in the district, adding more mentorships for boys and students of color, opening up certain schools from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays, and creating apprenticeship opportunities students can work at while in school or after they graduate.
Say Yes Buffalo currently has an endowment of $65 million built up to cover scholarships. Laurrie imagines a fully-funded Say Yes Niagara Falls endowment would be around $18 million for scholarships. The three other pillars helping students may be covered by existing district funds.
Throughout the upcoming year, Laurrie and Rust plan on going to different foundations for endowment donations. Interest would build on that endowment allowing it to sustain itself once it reaches that $18 million threshold.
Laurrie hopes that the apprenticeship opportunities coming out of this match with what are expected to be high-demand industries, like trades and microchips.
“We’ll hope those apprenticeships will lead to a stronger local workforce so the kids won’t leave the area,” Laurrie said.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts there will be around 175,000 open jobs in Erie and Niagara counties over the next decade, with two-thirds of those requiring a postsecondary degree. Rust adding the Say Yes program can fill up those jobs with local students.
As of 2023, $23 million in scholarships have been awarded with 3,442 students completing a college program. Over 2,500 students are currently receiving support from Say Yes.
Apart from private individuals, Say Yes Buffalo receives funding for its programs and operations from the City of Buffalo, the Buffalo Public School District, Erie County, New York State, and several foundations.
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