Students in some 125 Michigan communities in about half of the state’s 83 counties could benefit from free college tuition under Promise Zones legislation that passed the state House this week. (Those communities are listed in this quick summary.)
Proposed nearly a year ago by the Granholm Administration, the Promise Zone concept seeks to build on the early success of the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship guarantee program that has boosted student performance, college enrollment, and economic development within the once-struggling Kalamazoo Public Schools.
As documented by the Cherry Commission several years ago and in the Center for Michigan’s conference on education and the economy last January, Michigan struggles with low college attainment rates. Promise Zones are an attempt to combat that problem and assure that Michigan’s workforce is competitive in the 21st Century global economy.
As this legislation moves to the Senate, it’s important to note that such scholarship guarantee programs are not necessarily magic bullets. Many states are trying this approach, creating an arms race of sorts between neighboring states, as the Center for Michigan documented in a report last January. But, the results in Kalamazoo are still preliminary and the success of the idea is largely unproven elsewhere — one such program in Detroit has languished for years.
“Tuition guarantees are not a substitute for transforming teaching and learning in terms of preparing low income urban kids for college completion,” warns Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future, Inc. “So the Kalamazoo Promise (and any similar initiatives) may be terrific in terms of retaining middle class families with kids in the city which is worth doing, but it is highly unlikely without real education reform to improve academic achievement among low-income, predominantly African-American students.”
Granholm’s senior education advisor Chuck Wilbur acknowledged in an interview with the Center for Michigan that the Promise Zones won’t solve every problem.
“It’s more complicated than a tuition guarantee program, but this program creates the culture of learning we need to to make other education reform strategies work,” Wilbur said. “When you provide the Promise it catalyzes a community to do so many other things to help young people to succeed?”
Wilbur also notes the Promise movement through the legislative process is a working example of the kind of bipartisanship the Center for Michigan constantly calls for. The House vote included a number of Republican supporters and, in the Senate, the chief sponsor is GOP Senator Gerald Van Woerkom.
4 Comments
I think the Kalamazoo Promise program was started as a local economic development program to cause families with school age children who wanted to send their children to college to buy homes in the district. It was not thought of as a program to “create a culture of learning”. We should think about a cost benefit analysis comparing this type of program with the idea proposed by Michigan Future, Inc. to use the state dollars for higher education to provide vouchers for all children.
I don’t know what the founders of the Kalamazoo Promise hope to accomplish since they are unknown. But I assume they were primarily interested in providing a broader educational experience to many more children.Based on the 1st two years it has shown that it really has promise and I believe the Promize Zones legislation is a good 1st step in extending a promise to more kids.
I believe we should encourage college attendance for reasons other then just that the job requires more education. The college
experience helps with the quality of life in areas other than work and is a gain for all of us not just the individual(s) who get it. Kalamazoo Promise or state Promise Zones will provide help in this area.
I think along with the Kalamazoo promise another thing that would really help. Greatly encourage students all the way from K-12 grades to understand why education is necessary. We seem to emphasize the money factor for our own satifaction. I thing more important they should know we are all a part of this society and anything they can do to help a fellow student will benifit the society we all live.
I think along with the Kalamazoo promise another thing that would really help. Greatly encourage students all the way from K-12 grades to understand why education is necessary. We seem to emphasize the money factor for our own satifaction. I thing more important they should know we are all a part of this society and anything they can do to help a fellow student will benifit the society we all live in.