Promises kept: You stay in school, we’ll cover college

If your family couldn’t afford to pay for college, would you stop trying to get good grades? Would you cease to aim high?

Those questions, and the chilling implications they raise for low-income students, inspired an ambitious promise from Washington legislators in 2007: All seventh and eighth graders from low-income families could have their in-state college tuition covered if they maintained a C average or better, graduated from high school and stayed clear of legal trouble. They’d even get $500 extra for books.