Columbus State Community College wants Franklin County homeowners to help foot the bill for tuition-free college for recent local high-school graduates, and it is heading to the ballot to ask for it. College leaders say the new property-tax levy would expand the existing Columbus Promise scholarship and pay for more tutoring, apprenticeships and technology upgrades across campus.
The college’s plan builds on the Columbus Promise, a community initiative launched in 2022 that already covers tuition and fees for Columbus City Schools graduates and provides up to $500 per semester for educational expenses, according to Columbus Promise. Program officials say the scholarship also bundles in advising and wraparound services aimed at keeping students enrolled and on track to complete a credential.
The levy proposal
Columbus State is floating a 10-year, 1.9-mill operating levy that backers estimate would raise about $95 million a year to make tuition free for new Franklin County high-school graduates who enroll at the college within a year and complete a FAFSA, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. According to The Columbus Dispatch, the college’s board of trustees would have to sign off before the measure could be filed with the county, and the levy would need to be submitted by Aug. 5 to land on this year’s ballot.
Trustees and the calendar
Columbus State’s public board pages list planning and committee sessions in mid-July and serve as the place where trustees post agendas, supporting materials and any ballot-authorization items, according to the college’s board agenda page. Those documents will show the formal motions and vote records if and when trustees take up the levy question.
Price tag and what it would buy
Backers estimate the 1.9-mill levy would cost a homeowner about $67 per $100,000 of assessed value and would underwrite classroom and lab upgrades, expanded instruction, tutoring, student supports and programs that tie coursework to work experiences, per The Columbus Dispatch. The Columbus Dispatch also reports that Columbus State enrolls more than 41,000 students a year and that roughly two-thirds of those students live in Franklin County, college officials framed the initiative as about economic prosperity and good-paying jobs.
What comes next
If trustees approve the levy and the college files the question with the county, voters will decide later this year whether to add the new operating tax. Regardless of the outcome, the proposal has sharpened a local debate over who should pay for workforce training and how far the community is willing to go to knock down barriers to completing college in Columbus.
