2012 senior class photos
2012 West Carrollton graduation
Home of the Week
Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > November > 16 > Entry
I’m moving to Michigan
I know that headline is sacrilege on OSU-Michigan week, but hey, what if it meant sending your kids to college for free? I first saw this at The Education Wonks blog.
In Kalamazoo, unnamed donors gave millions to send every student in the city’s schools to college for free. The hope is that this will revitalize the city by attracting new people to town and down the line creating a better educated workforce.
It’s an interesting idea. It’s too bad we’ll have to wait years to see how it all turns out. Dayton is about twice the size of Kalamzoo, but the problems are the same. Both are Midwestern post-industrial cities losing jobs and people while poverty grows. Wouldn’t you like to see some of Dayton’s wealthy elites get together and try this too?
I have three kids. The offer is good for any Michigan public university. So my kids could all go to the University of Michigan, the Ivy of the Midwest, without it costing me a dime?
Out of state tuition, room and board to attend Michigan is $34,503 a year or $138,012 for four years. If I moved to Kalamazoo and all my kids studied hard enough to get in, I could save $414,036 and they’d get an Ivy-quality education.
Look, I promise I’ll still root for the Buckeyes. I wonder what the Kalamazoo paper is called?
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Colleges and Universities
Comments
By Mike
November 26, 2005 5:09 AM | Link to this
The Ivy of the Midwest? Be real. There is a reason that all of the trees in Ohio lean north — because Michigan sucks! On a serious note, Michigan does not hold a candle to any Ivy League School. I am a CJ grad that went to an Ivy League school and I have meant many Michigan grads in my day and have not meant any that I would consider to be of the caliber that I have run across from Ivy League schools. It is apples and oranges. The only school in the Midwest that I would consider giving that title to is the University of Chicago. UC has some serious brain power, but they are bunch of social misfits. I am sure there are some very bright people that went to Michigan (Gerald Ford for example), but the experience at an Ivy League school blows away anything that Michigan has to offer. Even great East Coast schools like Amherst have a bit of a Napoleon complex because they are not Ivy League, and Michigan is no Amherst, I guarantee that.By Mary
November 19, 2005 10:00 AM | Link to this
Personally, I think the donors might be wasting their money until they look more critically at what is driving the costs of college up and the quality of college education down. USA Today has featured quite a few articles lately on how the increase in spending in athletics departments is much higher than the rate of the rest of the university spending. Apparently, a lot of the money that should and could be spent on academics is being funneled instead to the athletics department. The same is happening in K-12. The media has been slow to report this as part of the explanation of rising education costs.By Connie
November 17, 2005 10:51 AM | Link to this
Come on Scott, just do it and move back to MI! Of course you pack up and head back to OH the same year your sister moves to MI. On top of the free tuition for the girls, you could have all the free babysitting you guys want! GO BLUE!By Scott Elliott
November 16, 2005 10:52 AM | Link to this
I knew I could count on OSU grad Mark for a Michigan slam! So I was talking with a colleague about this idea of sending every Dayton kid to college for free. Together, we made a quick list of well-heeled, community or education-minded local groups or individuals who might be persuaded to get involved in such a venture. Our top five was: The Mathile Foundation The Kettering Foundation Oscar Boonshoft The Berry family The Schusters Is there any chance Kalamazoo could have better community resources than this?By Mark
November 16, 2005 8:29 AM | Link to this
Look, Scott, you already infected your children with Wolverine cooties when you inflicted nine months of Ann Arbor on them during your Knight-Wallace Fellowship . Any more of this kind of talk and I’m reporting you to Children’s Services. Now repeat after me: “It’s Great ‘N’ Dayton.” And keep up those contributions to your kids’ college funds. It IS an intriguing program they’ve launched in Kalamazoo, though, I’ve gotta admit … Mark