Starbucks free tuition could boost more than baristas

(NBC News) With its offer of free or sharply reduced tuition to some 135,000 U.S. employees, Starbucks is brewing up a plan that higher education advocates call a potential game-changer for low-income students, and one that could benefit American employers too.

The coffee giant is partnering with Arizona State University to offer free or subsidized access to all of the more than 40 degree programs offered online by ASU.

Its a remarkable thing really, said Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, calling the program incredibly generous and smart.

We need more and more opportunities for low-income kids to go to college, agreed Ron Haskins, senior fellow at Brookings Institution. We have very good evidence that kids from the bottom 20 percent [of the income spectrum] who get a college degree increase by a factor of four the chance of making it to the top 20 percent, and reduce by almost two-thirds the chances of staying in the bottom, he said. If theyre serious, and all they lack is the money, this is a tremendous opportunity.

Starbucks says most of its partners, as it calls employees, have aspirations for college: either theyre in school, completed some college and dropped out, or want to earn a degree. Nationwide, only about half the students who start college actually complete it, leaving many with crippling student loan debt and without the added earning power a degree confers.

This makes the new program smart for Starbucks, too.

It is unusual for companies in retail to provide such benefits, Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher at Edvisors.com, said via email.

In this economy, hiring people for front-line retail positions is easy. Its getting the good ones and keeping them thats harder, Carnevale said. I think theyve closed the last barrier to retention, which is allowing people to continue their education or start up their education while its on the job, he said. They also are laying the groundwork for when the labor market eventually reaches full recovery.

Employers must invest in talent development to meet their own needs, to respond to the needs of the communities where they operate, and to contribute to our national well-being, Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the nonprofit Lumina Foundation, said via email. Starbucks is doing just that, he said.

While online degree programs have suffered from a poor reputation in the past, thats starting to change, experts say. Online education generally has a low retention and completion rate, although the program at ASU is known for good outcomes, Kantrowitz said.

The main reason for low performance at online programs in general has to do with the setting and the demographics, Kantrowitz said. Not all students thrive in an isolated learning experience, he pointed out, and low-income students face hurdles that make them less likely to graduate.

Starbucks new program takes a stab at addressing these challenges. Partners will have a dedicated enrollment coach, financial aid counselor and academic advisor to support them through graduation. The program also will include adaptive learning services to help students progress at the right pace for them, the company said in a news release.

Read more:http://nbcnews.to/1smls2I

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