Some news on the higher education front.

Six out of ten college students are graduating with no student debt.

And that's according to the Kentucky Council on Post-secondary education.

The council credits the decrease with the rise of participation and dual credit courses and schools, increasing their financial literacy education for students.

And I'm really happy to report that over the past five years, statewide, the proportion of students graduating debt free has gone up 14 percentage points from about 46% to just a little over 60%.

Even better, among those who graduate with some debt.

The amount of debt that they have at graduation has also receding at a rapid pace.

I think it's a combination, both of state policy and as well as the great work, the Cfpb and our, institutions are doing.

The General Assembly has been very intentional about, increasing the amount of cap grant dollars, which is the state's version of the federal Pell Grant.

The federal government also recently, made updates to the Pell Grant so that more students, low income students in particular, could get financial aid.

The state and Cfpb have also been very intentional in prioritizing, first gen student degree completion and low income student degree completion in the state's performance based funding model.

Another thing that I would mention is the rapid expansion of dual credit programs across the Commonwealth.

Over the past several years, we've ramped up, the proportion of students who graduate from high school was, successful completion of a dual credit course in 2016 that the proportion completing was about 23%.

Just last year, it was 47% of all high school graduates.

We're closing the gap on the proportion graduating without debt and the debt load for those who have debt among our low income students, and our first generation students, we have a higher education system here, and that's accessible and affordable for everybody.

What that translates to is, we're we're making remarkable progress as it is towards our north Star goal, which is that, 60% of all working age Kentuckians will have a degree or credential value by the year of 2030.

Right now, we're at 56.2%.

In turn, that means that we're going to have more citizens graduating with degrees and credentials of value, and they're in the workforce and making great wages and contributing to Kentucky's economy.

It's tax base, which which is a benefit to the state as a whole.

According to the Kentucky Council on Post-secondary education, 74% of graduates from community and technical college graduate debt free, as well as 46% of graduates from public universities.