Kalamazoo Program Set the Pace
By APRIL MARCISZEWSKI World Staff Writer
Giving students a chance at education is paying great dividends in the Michigan city.
A bellwether scholarship program in Kalamazoo, Mich., helped inspire Tulsa Community College’s new Tulsa Achieves scholarship and hundreds of similar ideas in communities nationwide and worldwide. The goal of the Kalamazoo Promise was never to inspire spinoffs, but that result has been “an unanticipated joy,” said Kalamazoo Public Schools Superintendent Janice Brown, who has fielded hundreds of calls about the program. In November 2005, anonymous donors agreed to pay indefinitely for every public-school graduate who lives in the school district at least through high school to go to any Michigan public college for four years. Since the announcement, 400 families from 88 Michigan communities and 32 states have moved to town; the school district has grown by 900 students; the district has hired 45 more teachers from a pool of 2,000 applicants; real estate values have risen 8 percent, and voters passed a bond issue to build the first new schools in more than 30 years, said Brown and Bob Jorth, executive administrator for the Kalamazoo Promise. “We talk about the new economy being a knowledge-based economy, and we talk about education driving that, but nobody’s ever wanted to fund that,” Jorth said. When cities compete to attract businesses, a well-trained work force is an advantage, he said.
About 80 percent of eligible students — about 330 students — are using the Promise scholarship this year, Jorth said. When four graduating classes of students are receiving the scholarship, the program is expected to cost $10 million to $12 mil lion a year.
El Dorado, Ark.: The closest copycat of the Kalamazoo Promise is the El Dorado Promise, announced in January and created by a $50 million pledge to be paid over 20 years by locally based Murphy Oil Corp.
The tuition scholarship pays for El Dorado High School graduates to go to any accredited college in or out of state, according to www.eldoradopromise.com. The scholarship amount maxes out at the tuition level of the most expensive Arkansas public university. About 220 of this year’s 260 graduating seniors have signed up so far, said Jim Fouse, the program’s administrator. Leaders hope the program revitalizes what originally was an oil boomtown, Fouse said. Economic growth would give college graduates a town worth returning to. Unlike Kalamazoo leaders, El Dorado leaders hope their program serves as an example that spurs others to create similar programs, Fouse said. “We’d like to see every child have that opportunity.” April Marciszewski 581-8475april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com
Other scholarshipprograms
Oklahoma City CommunityCollege started paying tuitionin 1999 for OklahomaCity Public Schools graduatesto motivate students to finishhigh school. OKC-GO! hasabout 400 participants thisyear.
The University of Tulsakicked off a tuition scholarshipin 1991 for students at itsPartner in Education, GilcreaseMiddle School. LikeOCCC, TU wanted to givestudents an incentive to getthrough 12th grade. The programhas resulted in seven oreight graduates, five currentstudents and one enrolled forfall.
Sources: OCCC and TU officials.(c) 2007 Tulsa World. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.