Almost four years ago, anonymous donors revolutionized Kalamazoo with the now famous pledge to fully pay the costs for any Kalamazoo kid to go to college. It will take many years to assess to what extent, and why, the Kalamazoo Promise succeeds in boosting education levels and local economic development. After all, the program’s first beneficiaries haven’t even graduated from college yet.
A new book by Michelle Miller-Adams, an assistant professor of political science at Grand Valley State University, provides the most detailed look yet of how the Promise came to be, how the community is reacting, and it’s overall prospects for long-term success.
By the broadest measures, the Promise is, indeed working, according to Miller-Adams’ work, titled “The Power of a Promise.”
Kalamazoo Public Schools have seen double-digit enrollment increases. Homeowners have used the leverage of the promise to boost their sales prospects. Employers have pointed to the Promise as an excellent quality of life measure.
But the true genius in the Promise is how it has required many community stakeholders to work together to deal with educational attainment gaps and the reality that many students are not prepared to succeed in college and thus not prepared to leverage the promise of the Promise. Miller-Adams’ research reveals that those stakeholders continue to struggle and adjust to the enormity of the gift and the responsibility that comes with it.
“The money itself is not enough,” Miller-Adams recently told Michigan Public Radio. “The scholarship program is a catalyst for a host of others to align their activities.”
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Advanced education is being pushed as the savior for all high school grads. In reality, not everyone is cut out for the college challenge.
Many will do better in a trade while many others won’t or can’t go on to any higher learning. Then there is the large percentage that won’t even finish high school. It’s like a death threat for a decent job.