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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > June > 27 > Entry
Springfield officials trek to Kalamazoo
A group of about 10 Springfield officials attended a conference this week in Kalamazoo, Mich. the city famed for its free college tuition program, the Lebanon (Pennsylvania) Daily News is reporting.
Since the Michigan city first launched The Kalamazoo Promise in November 2005, nearly every urban area in the Midwest has discussed the possibility of launching a similar program. Locally, I know Dayton and Middletown have discussed it.
Nearly all urban districts are losing students either to suburban sprawl or school choice. The Promise offers free tuition to the city school system’s graduates at any Michigan university. Other urban cities have seen the economic benefits — more businesses coming to the area, more home purchases in the city and increased enrollment at the local district — and hope to develop a similar program to get the same results.
But of all the districts that have talked about this, very few (less than 20, I believe) have done it. Find out why after the jump.
The Kalamazoo Promise is an innovative, brilliant idea. And also a very expensive one.
A group of anonymous benefactors made the Promise possible at an estimated endowment of $200-250 million. It pays anywhere form 65 to 100 percent — based on the length of the student’s attendance — of tuition at a state college or university for every grad who takes advantage of the offer.
I’m told a lot of students do take advantage of the offer and I have a friend who lives in Michigan and bought a house in Kalamazoo because of the Promise. Her daughter isn’t even two yet.
So for a similar program to take shape here, it would take a lot of cash from somewhere.
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