News-Record.com

RALEIGH (AP) — The scholarship program started by former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards that has sent rural high school graduates to college for free is ending after three years.

The College for Everyone program at Green Central High School in eastern North Carolina will end this year, The News & Observer of Raleigh reported today.

The pilot program has sent 190 Greene County students to college and cost $600,000 in its first two years. It was started in 2005, the year after Edwards was the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Before his presidential nomination campaign ended this year, Edwards said he wanted a similar national program, spending $8 billion to send 2 million students to college.

Under the program, students who qualified received tuition, fees and books at a public college for a year. Students were required to work at least 10 hours a week during college, stay out of trouble and take college preparatory classes in high school.

Program director Pamela Hampton-Garland said the program was designed to last three years.

"The program was a huge success," she said. "The numbers soared. The interest from students and parents and the community rose. It seemed the whole notion of college access changed."

Greene Central principal Randy Bledsoe said rising seniors, who won't be eligible for the program, and their parents have been notified.

"Some are saddened that the opportunity is not going to be there for their children,"

Bledsoe said. "But we've had a lot of positive reaction over the years."

The program was privately funded with Edwards responsible for raising the money for the nonprofit Center for Promise and Opportunity Foundation.

College applications in the county rose from 26 percent several years ago to 94 percent this year, said county school superintendent Patrick Miller.

Miller said he hoped the program created a culture of going to college.