Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

From Wikipedia:<p>"To receive a full scholarship, students must have attended Kalamazoo public schools since kindergarten. The program, unveiled at a November 10, 2005, Kalamazoo Board of Education meeting, is also viewed as an economic development tool for Kalamazoo. Since the Kalamazoo Promise was announced, enrollment in the school district has grown by 16%, test scores have improved, and a greater proportion of high-school graduates are attending college. In 2010 alone, the Kalamazoo Public School district saw enrollment rise 3% to 12,409."<p>Have to be there K-12 to get full tuition. There's a chart that shows the sliding scale based on your length of attendance. Most interesting part is that if you move in for the tail end of high school you get 0% covered to prevent people from temporarily joining the community just for the tuition.<p><pre><code> Attendance -&#62; Proportion of full tuition K–12 100% 1–12 95% 2–12 95% 3–12 95% 4–12 90% 5–12 85% 6–12 80% 7–12 75% 8–12 70% 9–12 65% 10–12 None 11–12 None 12 None </code></pre> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamazoo_Promise" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamazoo_Promise</a><p>EDIT: Added table.

Wow. That's neat.<p>I once had a conversation with a state legislator where he argued it wasn't the responsibility of government to provide grant and loan opportunities for higher education, and that by doing so, the federal government was disincentivizing saving and investing. Instead, he argued universities should be more market driven (which I will concede might introduce more price competition in the face of rapidly rising tuition rates). He was a firm believer that a university education should be something one works and sacrifices for.<p>In my elected position with public education at the time, I disagreed (and still disagree) with some of his claims, believing a subsidized higher education experience for a expanded pool of people is a long-term net gain compared to crime/prison costs and the cost of government-funded social safety net programs. (Although, again, college-student families admittedly qualify for most government assistance programs already, but this is hopefully a short-term rather than lifetime dependence.)<p>I'd love to see the long-term effects on the quality of life, debt, and employment prospects of these students.

"The Promise was created against a backdrop of recent economic thought that considers investment in education better than nearly every other kind of developmental effort when it comes to promoting economic growth."<p>That's the kind of thinking that turned east Asia from a place of wretched poverty to a place of wealth in my lifetime.

What's fascinating to me is that because it prevented the surrounding communities from growing at the expense of Kalamazoo, those districts invested even more in their schools and education infrastructure to compete with the city with The Promise. I would have predicted the exact opposite. Super interesting.

I went to college there and live one city over (25 minute drive). There are a lot of wealthy people living in the area, multimillionaires in the suburbs, but also a lot of poverty. A _lot_ of poverty. I'm glad to see someone trying something new, even on such a small scale. I was almost tempted to look for housing within the Kzoo city limits because of the Promise, but I don't plan on having children any time soon. We need more such experiments and resultant data.

On the assumption this is a good thing, let's say every town/state rolls such a scheme out. Now every student in the nation is having their tuition paid. It's also costing about the same amount as if the government levied taxes and paid the costs.<p>A negative, compared to government funding, is that the economy has lost mobility of labour. Getting a full scholarship requires the child to be enrolled from K-12. Loss of mobility might be a good thing, in that it prompts people to improve their local economy, rather than run away. Alternatively, it could lock people into a form of serfdom, unable to move to better their situation.<p>I'd advocate that a voucher system, whereby the government gives each student a voucher for the degree of their choice, would be preferable to the widespread adoption of "the promise".

Only now as an adult, having grown up in southwest Michigan, do I appreciate how unusual the region is.<p>The amount of culture and philanthropy in area is very high considering the population. In Kalamazoo there's the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center (thank you Upjohn family), the Gilmore Keyboard Festival (thank you Gilmore family), the philanthropic work of the Stryker family, ... the list goes on and on.<p>About an hour north of Kalamazoo is Grand Rapids, another major Michigan metro area, which is also defined by philanthropy: Art Prize (thank you DeVos family) and the Fredrick Meijer sculpture park (thank you Meijer family), just to name a few.<p>Are all towns in the United States like this?

What would be the unintended negative consequences of this?<p>It reminds me of the story of a West African king who went on a pilgrimage to Mecca. On his way to Arabia, the king gifted so much gold to all intervening communities that the price of gold crashed, taking with it the economies of North Africa and Arabia.

Coming from a European country where we still have free university I think it's a good thing. Sadly things are changing. Now there are limitations, first universities where you have to pay and ever since this was introduced you can follow how the rankings fall and fall.<p>Note for people from the US: College/University is harder to attend to (graduating from high school is harder) and it's also harder to stay in there (or not take long), so it's still not like everyone can attend it which sucks, because the reason may besides personal problems may be the fact that you are not good at something you won't ever need again anyway. Also on personal experience stuff like math is completely different at college anyway, if you study CS.

I'd say the kids of Kalamazoo could use a break given the kind of stuff they have to deal with.<p><a href="http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/Nose+Hill+Park+confrontation+makes+visitors+feel+unsafe/7050028/story.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/Nose+Hill+Park+...</a><p>Note: The above Kalamazoo sheriff is probably not quite as paranoid as the story suggests since Kalamzoo has a murder rate almost 7 times higher than Calgary despite being roughtly 1/14'th the size. If Kalamazoo is that dangerous, it's natural to assume a much bigger city would be even more dangerous. Still, that's one sheriff I wouldn't want to run into in a Kalamazoo park, let alone a dark alley!

And now. Whatever you do. No. Whatever. You. Do. Do. NOT. Turn back on this promise. Make it happen. No ifs, ands, or buts. Period.<p>And colleges. If somehow, something terrible happens, and the money stops coming in. Let those kids finish for free anyway. Anything less is the newest worst thing that could happen to these kids and then adults.<p>[edit: I am curious about the downvotes. From what I gathered, the people that these donors have chosen to help are the downtrodden of this area. Much of their life may have been spent in a world of people not fulfilling their world. Fathers leaving, etc. The last thing these kids need is for yet another promise to be left unfulfilled, be it by red-tape or just some series of unfortunate events. Despite that, these children need to have the results of the promise fulfilled.]

I usually let out some man-tears on especially touching movie scenes, book passages, music verses and family occasions, but I'm pretty much sure this is the first time I couldn't hold it while reading an article. At least 5 times.<p>"The Promise" sounds like some utopian sci-fi plot, and the childrens' thank you notes for their unseen benefactors are more than heartwarming. These kind of investments that empower and multiply their effects are the farthest reaching long-term, and just brilliant.<p>Now I want to be a billionaire.

<i>With every added student, the school district gets another $7,250 from the state.</i><p>That's per year, right? That's very close to the $4,200/semester number. So the college payments are almost equivalent to extending education from K12 to K16. That means that this could be done, even without donations, across the country.

FYI Kalamazoo has three venture capital firms whereas to my knowledge Grand Rapids and Lansing have none. In fact until a few years ago there weren't any VC's in the Detroit city limits.

I am very jealous of these students, I entered my post college life in the hole like many other students. Luckily, the tech world is in a completely different state than the rest of the job world when it comes to looking for a place to practice your profession.

Actually, it's donors (plural). They are collectively called the Kalamazoo Promise.<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamazoo_Promise" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalamazoo_Promise</a>

If I had to guess at a glance, I'd say maybe Chuck Feeney:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Feeney#Education" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Feeney#Education</a>

Scott's Tots?

Interesting how little effect they describe it as having on teen pregnancy and dropout rates.

Anonymous? If memory serves me right it is the Stryker family that provides the scholarships.

Having grown up in Michigan, this isn't anything particularly new. Kalamazoo has been at this for a while (perhaps the donor), and although it's phenomenal, I'm surprised it's at the top of HN.

I wonder if Anonymous is taking credit for this.

Scott's Tots

It was batman!