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Kalamazoo Free Tuition Program Sees Signs of Success
By Catherine Groux
Posted September 17, 2012 11:00 AM
A local program helps Kalamazoo students go to college for free.In the past, many high school students in Kalamazoo, Michigan never considered going to college, seeing higher education as something that was simply too far out of reach. About one-third of all students in the Kalamazoo district live below the national poverty line, while one in 12 is homeless, The New York Times reports.
However, these youths were given hope for the future in November 2005, when Janice M. Brown, the superintendent of Kalamazoo's public schools, announced that local donors promised to pay the college tuition of every student who graduated from the district's high schools. The Kalamazoo Promise program vowed not to take into account students' race, gender, grades or criminal records, giving all high school graduates the same option to pursue a bachelor's or associate's degree.
Under this initiative, many students go on to achieve goals they never thought possible. More than 90% of the students from the class of 2006 who took advantage of the Promise program have attended at least one semester of college, while more than one-third have earned a bachelor's degree, Michigan Live reports.
This figure may seem low, but Promise students are exceeding national averages. While about 36% of these youths earn a bachelor's degree by age 24, only 23% of all Americans can say the same. For Kalamazoo residents like Brown, these figures are significant.
"It explains why there's so much interest in The Promise: Because it works," Brown told Michigan Live. "We're onto something big."
