Although still up in the air, funding approval from the Minnesota Legislature could mean it is back-to-school time for adults at Riverland Community College.

MN Reconnect is a pilot program put together through a partnership between the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and Minnesota State, intended to reach out to adults who started, but did not complete a college education. Riverland Community College is one of four institutions selected for the pilot program, alongside Inver Hills Community College, Lake Superior College and South Central College. The program is intended to start this fall.

“Minnesotans who do not finish their college and career training programs often miss out on higher wages and better opportunities,” Gov. Mark Dayton said in a press release. “I encourage all eligible Minnesotans, who are interested in completing their educations and trainings, to apply for assistance through the Reconnect Program.”

Meredith Fergus, who works in the research and policy fields at the Minnesota Office of Higher Education with state grant and financial aid data and analysis and as the Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System coordinator, said the four colleges were selected based on a competitive application process.

“We wanted them to demonstrate that they had a commitment to this population group,” Fergus said. “The kind of college experience you give an 18-year-old is going to be different than the kind of college experience you give a 25-year-old.”

Colleges were evaluated based on on-site child care, their policies on prior learning and whether they actively help students take advantage of those policies, flexible scheduling and predictable scheduling. Fergus said the Office of Higher Education also challenged colleges to consider how students who are 25 and older fit into their enrollment long-term.

When you think about students who start college and drop out for two years or more, “there’s a reason they dropped out,” Fergus said. It is important for colleges to figure out what those are and how to provide resources to combat those reasons.

This assistance includes the scholarships, but also having a single point of contact within the college, financial assistance that may not be fee-related (for example, settling up on past unpaid tuition bills or helping resolve student loan default issues) and sourcing other community assistance and benefits. For instance, students may be eligible for food stamps or subsidized child care and may need help arranging transportation or finding emergency housing.

Additionally, Fergus said they are encouraging colleges to develop policies where earlier credits earned are transferable. Colleges can also give credit based on work experience or military service.

Ultimately, Fergus said, she thinks Minnesota needs to find a way to make MN Reconnect work for all adults.

“The decision to go with students who had started versus students who hadn’t started yet, that for us is essentially the tip of the iceberg,” Fergus said. She said the pilot program will help the Office of Higher Education and colleges figure out what combination of resources works for students.

Fergus said the program is an effort to create a highly-skilled workforce in line with the state’s education attainment goal: ensuring 70 percent of Minnesota’s workforce has post-secondary credentials by 2025. Fergus said this helps the state be more economically robust.

“There is a continual need to kind of have more training as you go through the life cycle and the work life cycle to ensure that you are a strong candidate in the economy, whether it be good or bad,” she said.

The program’s funding is in the hands of the Minnesota Legislature, which will have to approve a requested $1.4 million in the legislative session to fund the scholarships.

According to Fergus, funding the scholarships is the program’s biggest challenge.

“That’s the one that has me biting my fingernails right now,” she said.

Fergus noted that the request is not one for additional funds, but instead a transfer of funds allocated to another program that are going unspent.

“That’s the part we’re working on,” Fergus said. “And, of course, we won’t know that until the Legislature ends.”

Then there’s the question of how the timeline will work for students.

“Is it going to be enough time for an adult with children to make that change?” Fergus said.

MN Reconnect is also receiving support from Lumina, whose funding will pay for staffing, resources and other forms of administrative needs but whose funds cannot be used for scholarships, Fergus said. State Higher Education Executive Officers Association is providing technical assistance.

The program intends to hand out 500 scholarships of up to $3,000 each between the four institutions over the four-year pilot program. A student can receive up to the $3,000 mark per year for up to two years. Eligible students are between 25 and 61 years old, have a family adjusted gross income of $85,000 or less and have completed 15 college credits. Fergus said the student’s previous institution of study does not have to have been a Minnesota State college.