Pueblo County Commissioners have announced that they are going to be the very first community in the world to provide a cannabis-funded scholarship to graduating high school students and that they are now accepting applications for its first full year of funding.
It was Monday when the Board of Pueblo County Commissioners approved the contract between Pueblo County and the Pueblo Hispanic Education Foundation to administer the scholarship, The Gazette reported. Every graduating high school student who resides in Pueblo County and is planning to Pueblo Community College or Colorado State University-Pueblo $1,000 worth of scholarship.
In order to be awarded of the scholarship, students will be required to fill out a form. They can also apply online at www.phef.net. Even in the previous years, around 300 to 400 high school graduates have attended a local Pueblo college, according to KKTV 11 News. It has been on the forefront of the cannabis policy not only in the US but even in the world.
They are the first ever community to be providing this scholarship funded by cannabis to every graduating high school student because they aim to make college affordable for their youth. And that is how they provide long-term economic opportunity in their community. So while many kids are not able to afford college, their program will be utilizing cannabis-tax revenue to provide these students an opportunity for a brighter future.
The Pueblo County Scholarship fund was created by a ballot initiative in the Coordinated Election in 2015 and the money allocated for this program were collected from the 50 percent of all the marijuana excise tax. Excise tax refers to the tax on all marijuana grown in this community and is being charged to the cultivator only once, when the marijuana is sold to a store. The remaining revenue then goes to community enhancement projects.
