Disney has announced that they will offer free tuition for some 80,000 full and part-time hourly workers. This is not a tuition reimbursement, but is paid upfront with a reimbursement for textbooks.
The program is initially funded at $50 million dollars, but Disney plans to invest $25 million more annually to continually fund the program. They partnered with Guild Education (who also worked with Wal-Mart and Chipotle) to offer online courses throughout a network of schools. Guild will provide Cast Members with a personal coach to help navigate the process.
The tuition assistance program is called Disney Aspire and will launch this fall.
Disney offers free tuition to Cast Members: good idea?