San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced Monday a proposal that would allocate unused public campaign financing funds to a program targeted at helping elementary school kids start preparation for college.

The proposed program, S.F. Promise, partners Newsom with SF State President Robert Corrigan, California State University Chair of the Board of Trustees Roberta Achtenberg and the San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

Newsom would spend left over money from the Mayoral Election Campaign Fund—about $6 million according to a press release—to help students beginning sixth grade to start to plan for college.

“The concept is great,” said Jo Volkert, associate vice president of enrollment planning and management at SF State. “We can inform kids at the 6th grade level what it takes to get into college, make it an early goal, as opposed to something they don’t really think about until later.”

Volkert said the program aims to get students seriously preparing for college at an earlier age.

“Often, by the time kids are in high school, a lot of them haven’t done the prep,” said Volkert. “Rather than scrambling at 10th or 11th grade, students will have a better idea of what to expect and plan for starting in middle school.”

According to Heidi Andersons, public relations coordinator for San Francisco Unified School District, the program would start with 350 sixth graders (20 percent of the nearly 1,750 eligible students) beginning in fall 2008.

Anderson said the program would target students who score basic or below basic by California Standardized Test Score scale.

Since the program has not been formally adopted, the partnering committees have not specified which schools within the district would be the first participants.

“Right now, we are dealing with the San Francisco School District as a whole,” said Volkert.

“We’ll probably start with a particular list of schools, then gradually expand to include all schools in the district.”

The program will require between $800 and $2,300 per student, per year, according to a press release from Newsom’s office. Newsom estimates that the first year will cost a total of $525,000.

The program would not restrict students to apply to only SF State, said Volkert. SF State will serve as the model university to inform students on preparation, testing, applications and college life.

Volkert said planned visitation days to SF State would help to “show students what college looks like.”

Contrary to what has been reported in other media outlets, students who complete the program will not be guaranteed an acceptance letter to SF State for completing the program.

Students who participate will still be required to submit an application and will be accepted based on the same eligibility requirements as those who are not part of the program, according to Volkert.

“People who complete [the program] and meet the qualifications for admission are definitely guaranteed,” said Jo Volkert, associate vice president of enrollment planning and management at SF State.

The plan has the potential to attract more students from SFUSD, said Volkert. She said the program aims to bring more students to SF State from the City who, “didn’t necessarily grow up with the automatic assumption that they are going to college,” which is more common with students from the city’s private high schools.

In the Fall 2006 semester there were 366 students from San Francisco public high schools out of 3,258 first time freshman enrolled at SF State, according to the University and Budget Planning office.

The goal of the plan is to create a “college culture,” according to Lee Blitch, vice president of university advancement, who was on the deciding committee.

The program has no official start date, but Volkert and Anderson said the partnering groups aim to get it started by fall 2008. Volkert said the details would be worked out once the program is officially approved.

According to a press release from Newsom’s office, two pieces of legislation will be submitted this week. One will form a special fund for SF Promise. The second will amend the Mayoral Election Campaign Fund ordinance, which will allocate the unspent public funding for the current Mayoral election.

Since the money would come from public funding, both the Board of Supervisors and the Ethics Commission have to approve the proposal.