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The Detroit News featured the MEEF supported Detroit Promise program in a recent article noting that 833 Detroit high school graduates received scholarships for a tuition free path to college. The article explored two important new initiatives for the 2016-2017 school year:

(1) Four-year tuition free paths for 293 Detroit high school graduates

For the first time. Detroit Promise will support students at University of Michigan, Michigan State University  and a number of other public Michigan universities enrolled in four year degree programs. This pilot program will continue next year as well.

(2) Coaching and Support for 250+ community college attendees

This year, Detroit Promise Path will offer additional coaching and supports to roughly half of the 540 scholarship recipients attending two-year programs at participating community colleges. More than 250 community college students will be enrolled in the program to see if these supportive efforts will improve their chances of graduating. Similar model programs have demonstrated positive results in both student retention and graduation in other regions of the United States.

If successful, MEEF will work to expand both of these initiatives to benefit Detroit high school graduates in the future under the Detroit Promise program.

See “Program gives Detroit students path to 4-year colleges,” by Kim Kozlowski, The Detroit News, September 25, 2016.

For more information and to apply to Detroit Promise, visit http://www.detroitchamber.com/econdev/education-and-talent/detroit-promise/

The Detroit Promise Scholarship was featured in a RYOT media video.

RYOT wrote:

“Two years of college education just became free for high school students in Detroit.

The city has announced that high school graduates will be given two years of free college tuition at a community college to help aid students aspiring for a higher education.

‘We are making a promise to every single student who graduates from a high school in Detroit,’ Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said.

The funding will come from the Detroit College Promise program that is run by the Detroit Public Schools Foundation.

How will the program provide free college education for every high school graduate in the city?

The program plans to appropriate the city’s property taxes to fund eligible students’ college education — considering that free education would encourage more people to pursue a college degree.

Many students drop out of school or do not proceed to get a college degree after high school because they are unable to afford the high costs tied with a college education.

According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center , households headed by a college educated person have a higher average income than those that are headed by non-college educated persons.

It doesn’t help that student debt is unfathomably huge in the country. The same Pew study found that people who have no student debts tend to have a higher net worth than others.

This program may be a step in the right direction to ensure that these kids have better opportunities in the future.”