Why These Kids Get a Free Ride to College
Ted C. Fishman,
New York Times,
Sept 14, 2012
While our city government here in Moncton can't even keep buses on the road, those in Kalamazoo, Michigan, are stewards of 'The Promise' - free post-secondary education for any student who graduates high school in the city. "After the Promise was announced on the 11 o'clock news, the kids were up celebrating until 2 or 3 in the morning," Ron Cunliffe, a Kalamazoo dad with three children eligible for the Promise, says. "We kept waiting for someone to say it was a joke." There are, of course, detractors. One commenter says "Kalamazoo is still dwindling despite the Promise. What, like promising college to everyone is going to magically change everything and make kids stay in the state?" Of course not. Life intervenes, the students still must make sacrifices, and not everything is perfect. But the promise has had an impact. "High-school test scores in Kalamazoo have improved four years in a row. A higher percentage of African-American girls graduate from the district than they do in the rest of the state, and 85 percent of those go on to college. Overall, more than 90 percent of Kalamazoo's graduates today go on to higher education." Something for our civic leaders to consider.
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