Fewer Ohioans enrolled in state’s private colleges

Aug. 9, 2011, Bucyrus Telegraph Forum

By Jessica Alaimo

CentralOhio.com

While enrollment at Ohio private colleges and universities stayed level and in some cases increased in the past decade, fewer of those students are from Ohio.

This is in part because of the 2009 elimination of the Student Choice Grant program, funded by the state, which gave students grant money to attend private schools, according to a group supporting these entities.

Last year, 61 percent of students entering Ohio’s private colleges were from the state. In 2004, that figure was at 70 percent, according to the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio.

But that doesn’t mean enrollment is declining.