Metro

D.C. Gives High Schoolers More College Tuition Assistance Than Ever. Is It Enough?

To bridge the gap between in- and out-of-state costs, the grant now provides up to $15,000 a year.

College graduation

The D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant gives thousands of high school students money to help pay for out-of-state tuition at public universities. (Darrell Hoemann/AP)

By Zara Norman

August 20, 2026 05:15 a.m.

Clarence Cross was in high school when D.C. launched its tuition assistance grant program in 1999. By the time the program’s dollar value increased one cent, he was an educator himself.

The program, D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant (DCTAG), gives thousands of the District’s high school students money to help pay for out-of-state tuition at public universities, since D.C. has only one — the University of the District of Columbia, ranked 145th among northern region universities by U.S. News and World Report.

“It really just provides a lot of access for our students, especially first-generation, low-income students,” Cross, an associate director at Friendship Public Charter School in Northwest D.C., told NOTUS.