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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > September > 25 > Entry
Scholarship plan aims to mirror Michigan’s success
By Scott Elliott
Dayton Daily News
Steward Sandstrom moved to Kalamazoo, Mich., for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
For a man accustomed to tossing his extra money into savings accounts for a first-grader and 15-month-old, the free college educations that Kalamzoo offers allows Sandstrom to pursue another dream.
“Now I might be able to buy a Harley. I won’t have to spend it on tuition,� he said.
Grassroots Greater Dayton, an anti-sprawl group, hopes its version of the Kalamazoo Promise will have a similar effect — drawing smart, education-minded parents to breathe new life into a city in economic decline.
Anonymous donors there contributed millions to turn the city into “promise land,� as some newbies call it — a place where all school district graduates are guaranteed a free education at any state college.
Grassroots Greater Dayton hopes to raise enough for its own promise — up to $20,000 for Dayton school district residents who graduate from any public or private high schools to attend one of 10 local colleges.
Sandstrom, who left Iowa to become the president of the Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce, said the Promise is brilliant.
“Work force is the most critical need of towns this size in the Midwest,� he said of the city of 72,700 people. “What an effective work force development tool this community has. And think of what it says about the way community leaders invested in the community.�
When Jack, his first-grade son, is about 13, Sandstrom wants to roll up the driveway on the Harley of his dreams.
“That would be just at the point when words like “coolâ€? and “dadâ€? don’t go together anymore,â€? he said. “I hope for maybe a week those words can come back together.”
Paula Norder cares deeply enough about her son’s education to move her family from their Portland, Ore., home of 10 years to a Midwestern city she had visited just once for a Nirvana rock concert years ago.
The more she learned about the Kalamzoo Promise of free tuition the more she liked the idea of moving to western Michigan. She put in for a transfer with her company and the Norders moved in July.
“I never completed my degree and I know there are opportunities for which I am not as competitive as the next person,� she said.
Norder wanted her first-grade son to be assured of going to college.
“The degree really gives you an advantage,� she said.
Local proponents would seek to mirror Kalamazoo’s success attracting newcomers like Norder and Sandstrom.
The city, a little less than half the size of Dayton, last November launched a scholarship program that offers full tuition to any state school for all students who graduate after spending their entire school careers in the city’s public schools. Partial scholarships are available for those with fewer years in the district.
The goal was to bring new families to the city, injecting energetic, upwardly mobile parents into the city’s work force while at the same time providing opportunity and hope to the city’s children.
It’s working, said Bob Jorth, executive director and the only employee of the Promise.
“The kids are very aware of the Promise and they now want to finish high school,� he said. “It isn’t just any scholarship that could motivate the kids like this. It’s that it sounds too good to be true, and it isn’t. It’s all carrot and no stick.�
The program is funded by anonymous individual donors — there are rumored to be five wealthy contributors — at a cost of about $2 million this year and eventually reaching up to $12 million annually. Since the Promise was announced, the city has seen a huge jump in school enrollment, a rise in home prices, new families from 30 states and more than 90 percent of last spring’s graduates attending college this fall.
“It’s an incredible thing that this much has happened in just 10 months,� Jorth said.
Last week, Grassroots Greater Dayton said it was in the final planning stages for its proposal and that it hoped to start fundraising in November.
The proposal for Dayton is different than what Kalamazoo offers. The scholarship would not be for full tuition in all cases. It would offer $5,000 a year up to $20,000 for four years. And it would be good at 10 local colleges only, not statewide. The schools are the University of Dayton, Wilberforce, Central State, Wittenberg, Antioch, Kettering College of Medical Arts, Sinclair, Wright State, Clark State and Edison.
But Dayton’s plan, targeted for 2008, would be open to more kids — any high school graduate who lives within the city school district, even if they attended a private or charter school.
With less money and fewer college options, the question is if Dayton’s plan would have the same broad appeal.
“That’s a reasonable gamble on Dayton’s part,� Jorth said. “It’s still got the “wow� factor.�
Norder said she thought Dayton’s plan might be better at keeping families in the city than attracting new families. She said she still would have considered Kalamazoo if its program had Dayton’s limits, but much less strongly.
Jorth said he’s been contacted by other cities about copying the Kalamazoo Promise, but that Dayton is farthest along. Cincinnati also is considering a program in partnership with two Kentucky cities.
Norder said Ohioans should go for it.
She doesn’t know what her six-year-old son will want to do after high school, but she likes knowing that he will have options.
“If he wants to be a doctor or a lawyer, it’s just phenomenal that he could go to a great place like the University of Michigan for pre-law or pre-med, have that paid for and walk into graduate school without a student loan,� she said. “And if he wants to study music or history or something else, there will be a state school and he can get a degree in whatever his heart desires.�
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: My Favorite DDN Stories
Comments
By Rick
September 27, 2006 6:47 PM | Link to this
Lea, maybe I’m mistaken, but I thought the student could attend any school. Scott, do I have it right?By Lea
September 25, 2006 11:50 AM | Link to this
I could have used some help, too. The problem with Dayton’s idea for a “promise” is that, like many others, I would rather do without and pay for my children’s college than send them to DPS. And live in the actual city limits? FORGET IT.By Eve
September 25, 2006 6:56 AM | Link to this
I would have appreciated some help with the now $65,000 in loans it has taken to put my kids through Ohio colleges. It’d be nice if the most I’d had to forego was the purchase of a luxury motorcycle.