Mizzou looks to guarantee admission for talented, needy fourth-graders

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The University of Missouri's flagship campus is embracing a plan to guarantee admission and offer full scholarships to talented but needy fourth-graders.

The project, which remains in the formative stages, would initially focus on students from the Kansas City public school system but hopefully expand statewide, University of Missouri-Columbia chancellor Brady Deaton said.

"We don't want to see social and income impediments steer them away from the potential of higher education," he said. The project is about "intervening, giving hope and trying to inspire young people."

Eligible students would have to maintain high levels of academic performance and, upon enrollment, still meet the university's regular admission requirements, supporters said.

"This is not going to be a cakewalk," said Laura Schopp, an assistant professor of health psychology and member of the campus faculty council.

On Thursday, the council endorsed a resolution in support of the program, calling the lack of affordable access to higher education among inner-city, ethnic and racial minority students "a national tragedy."

The number of students served by such a program, as well as the costs, remain unclear. Deaton has formed a campus task force to further study the issue and said he hopes to have a program in place by fall 2007.

The university is targeting fourth-graders because students at that age, regardless of racial makeup or family income, tend to score similarly on academic performance measures, Deaton said. But from that point, the gap starts to widen, he said.

Financial support from the private sector, particularly the Kansas City and St. Louis business communities, will be pivotal to the program's success, Deaton said.

State lawmakers will also need to help out, he said, and the program should strive to expand to the University of Missouri system's other three campuses in St. Louis, Rolla and Kansas City, as well as Missouri State University.

"This is a state responsibility," Deaton said.

Such programs are not unprecedented in Missouri and other states, though many focus on high school and middle school students.