The State of Mississippi is denying 170 Mississippi foster students full-ride scholarships to colleges across the state, with many would-be freshmen finding out only weeks before their move-in date. They now must face the fact that legislative budget decisions are suddenly blocking the key financial lifeline meant to help them transition out of the foster system and into adult life.
With no ability to conjure additional funding for the program until the Legislature returns in January, the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid is now seeking accommodations with the state’s various universities to try and fill the gap left by a gaping shortfall in the agency’s funding from the State Legislature. But that assistance may come too late for the many dozens of first-time college applicants.
State officials and foster parents alike worry those new college students may fall out of the system entirely. “It’s heartbreaking,” said Jennifer Rogers, executive director of the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid. “These are probably the most vulnerable students in the state, and we were not able to award them because the funding simply wasn’t there—and we’re required by law to award in that fashion.”
Donnie Cunningham, a parent whose foster daughter found out abruptly this week that her college plans had been dramatically derailed, told the Mississippi Free Press on July 31 that the impact on other children like his would be devastating.
“They’re preparing for school already. They’ve moved past that scholarship, they’re focused on, ‘OK, what do I need to have? How am I gonna set up my schedule? When do I move in? What do I need for my dorm room?’ Then this happens, and it gets pulled out from underneath them. It’s soul-crushing.”
Faith Scholarships Meant to Inspire ‘True Hope’
The Fostering Access and Inspiring True Hope, or FAITH Scholarship, which the Legislature introduced in 2022, is a financial aid program for any Mississippi resident under age 25 who has been in legal custody of the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services, lived in a residential living facility or been adopted out of MDCPS.
FAITH is a “last-dollar, full cost of attendance” award, specifically designed to support Mississippi students who need the help to attend college. After Pell grants and other scholarships, a FAITH scholarship kicks in and covers the entire cost of a scholar’s education and cost of living. That includes tuition, housing, academic materials, meal plans and even housing accommodations during institutional breaks to ensure students with nowhere to return home to have a place to live between semesters.
The scholarship structure is paired with a unique funding mechanism. “Each year, the Legislature has to provide a specific appropriation for the FAITH Scholarship. It is not one of those programs that is just covered like MTAG and MESG and HELP (other financial aid programs in the state) under our general appropriation,” Jennifer Rogers told the Mississippi Free Press in a July 31 interview.
“We asked for right at $4.6 million to fully fund FAITH for the 2026-2027 academic year. We received $3 million.”
That $1.6 million gap, reflective of a greater budgetary shortfall for the state’s financial-aid office of over $10 million, meant that many of the incoming crop of students would likely run into barriers receiving the expected funds, for which they had qualified. But the bill’s structure also determined who would be served first.
“The legislation also tells us that if funds are not available to award all students,” Rogers explained, “that we are to give priority consideration to renewal students and then fund new applicants on a first-come, first-served basis.”
That combination of restrictions puts the program on a continual collision course with the reality of student aid funding, especially for a new program like FAITH.
“We don’t have a lot of historical data on this program to know exactly what our numbers are going to look like from year to year,” Rogers said.
Those questions include: How many students will apply? How many will actually use the scholarship? How much will each grant cost—across schools, programs and additional scholarship profiles? The Legislature formally appropriates the money at the end of the session, between March and April, and the money arrives with the beginning of the fiscal year in July—only a month before classes begin.
But the tricky formula of programmatic funding is mostly invisible to the hundreds of foster students across Mississippi who have structured the beginning of their adult lives around the opportunity the scholarship provides.
A Leap to Higher Education Deferred
Donnie Cunningham and his wife Aundrea first welcomed their foster daughter Sarah—a pseudonym—into his home this year, eager to help her make the leap to independent life and higher education. Sarah applied for FAITH as soon as she was able, with her adviser assuring her that it was a guaranteed route to comfortable financial support for her at a state university.
Despite her tumultuous circumstances, Sarah earned a place at the University of Mississippi, qualified for FAITH, and was in the process of preparing to move to her new alma mater. But in late July, something unnerved the new family: Sarah’s FAITH money had yet to arrive. She reached out to the financial aid office and was floored to discover that there was no small hitch. The money simply wouldn’t be arriving.
The message they received was blunt: “Due to inadequate funding, we are unable to award all applicants for the FAITH Scholarship for the 2026-2027 year. You will not be eligible for FAITH Scholarship funds for the 2026-2027 year. You may reapply for the 2027-2028 year beginning October 1, 2026.”
When the reality finally set in, Sarah broke down crying. Her foster parents were there to comfort her. Cunningham says their adviser was surprisingly sanguine about the circumstances.
“They were like, ‘Oh, don’t worry about it. The schools know that the program didn’t get funded completely and that there’s a lot of kids that aren’t getting the scholarship right away, but they’re not going to harass you about your payments and stuff.’”
That reassurance doesn’t quite solve the gap for the nearly 200 foster children with suddenly limited prospects.
“If someone had informed her ahead of time, it would have given her time to apply for other possible scholarships or grants,” Cunningham said. “But because they told her she was going to get it, she didn’t apply for those other ones. This was going to take care of it.”
A Complicated System With Few Guarantees
For the 2026-2027 school year, 159 renewal applicants received FAITH awards, and 23 new applicants also received awards. A staggering 170 fully completed applications from new applicants were denied. Rogers said she expects that a majority of those denials would have been used this fall.
Usually, in a circumstance like this, the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid could fund the program for all students using funding for both semesters, then request additional funding from the Legislature next year to make up the remainder.
“Subject to the availability of funds, it is the intent of the Legislature to first fund grant awards to eligible students,” Rogers quoted the statute. “If funds are insufficient to fully fund grant awards to eligible students, grant awards shall be prorated among all eligible students.”
But this language applies only to the other financial aid programs at the agency’s disposal. FAITH is explicitly excluded, meaning the program can’t be overcommitted with a funding gap to be addressed in January.
“We have already asked for additional funding,” Rogers said. “We actually wrote it into our fiscal-year 2028 budget request—a deficit request for this year. The problem is that we’re not going to know about that until the middle of the spring semester, and for these students it’s going to be way too late for them to make decisions.”
Rogers made it clear that her agency doesn’t prematurely assure students of their receipt of the award before it’s certain. “We never make awards for any of our programs, not just FAITH, but for any of the programs until June or July.”
But she fully acknowledged that the peculiarities of the funding process are mostly invisible, especially to foster children, often applying for college while shuttled through a complicated system with few guarantees.
“ If you meet these basic eligibility requirements, and you’re going to school in Mississippi, theoretically you should be eligible,” she said. “That is certainly a generally understood expectation and generally shared expectation.”
At this, Rogers became deeply emotional.
“We do this work to make it possible for kids to go to college. And we feel good about our work most of the time. We feel like we’re making a difference. And then something like this happens, and it’s just devastating. You don’t want to have to tell these students that they can’t afford to go to college now.”
Rogers regrets that the individuals affected by the underfunding of FAITH did not have more warning that their scholarships were at risk. While the agency has been up front with schools, CPS partners and other institutions in the foster care community that the shortfall could threaten some scholarships, she acknowledges that students themselves did not receive a direct alarm as soon as the Legislative budget was finalized.
“ I don’t know that there’s a good way that we could’ve done that. Everyone would have been calling, asking ‘am I gonna get it?’ And we really don’t know until we start evaluating individual applications by time received.”
Each institution with incoming students directly affected by the FAITH shortfall has been notified, Rogers said. They have the options of waiving tuition for the students, or providing additional forms of aid to help tide the students over until January, when the Legislature returns. The agency is still capable of funding the entire year for the denied students, provided funds are received before the end of the current fiscal year.
Cunningham and his family are supporting Sarah directly, intending to find a way to support her through college regardless of what happens with FAITH, however much a burden that may be. But such dedication is promised to very few in Mississippi’s foster care system.
“If she didn’t have someone like us,” Cunningham reflected, “And all these other kids don’t necessarily have what she has, what would you do?”
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