[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=49430.86

Council To Consider Providing Scholarships

Laurie Wink
The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - At-large City Council member Bob McKee believes if a Kalamazoo Promise can exist, why not a Michigan City Promise.

McKee asked the council Tuesday night to look at starting a scholarship program for Michigan City that, like Kalamazoo, would provide full college scholarships to students who graduate from Michigan City Area Schools.

"It would be a tremendous economic engine to attract business here, and would let kids know they could go on to college," McKee said. "I think it's very doable."

The Kalamazoo Promise guarantees full college scholarships to potentially every graduate of the Kalamazoo Public School district who attends a Michigan college. Students there have to maintain a 2.0 grade average in college courses and make regular progress toward a degree. Given current tuition rates ranging from under $2,000 a year at a community college to $10,000 a year at a major university, the scholarship program is worth up to $40,000 per student for a four-year degree.

The Kalamazoo Promise was initiated with major corporate funding. It's intended to be an economic development tool to revitalize the city by investing in public education.

McKee said he doesn't yet know how much a local scholarship program would cost.

Council President Ron Meer, 3rd Ward, agreed to form a committee at the Aug. 19 council meeting. Council members discussed the 21st Century Scholars Program that offers eight semesters of college tuition at any Indiana state college, university or qualified technical school.

The support program only is available to students who apply during seventh and eighth grades. Students must pledge to not take drugs or alcohol, or commit a crime.

McKee said there's room for other scholarship programs and opportunities with higher education institutions.

"With Ivy Tech and PNC in our backyard," he said, "I assume something could be done in partnership with them."



Contact Laurie Wink at lwink@thenewsdispatch.com.

[JHeath]

Great concept. I'd love to know more details on the plan.

[Roger Kaputnik]

The support program only is available to students who apply during seventh and eighth grades. Students must pledge to not take drugs or alcohol, or commit a crime.


Well, this will save a ton of money because there may be about ten kids a year who qualify.

[Dave]

Kalamazoo Promise website

Interesting. I'm sure every town on the planet would like to have one of those.

It would appear that the endowment for the Kalamazoo Promise, for a city of 77,000, is estimated at $250 million. Gee, Michigan City isn't as large, so we're only going to need $100 million to fund ours.

[Roger Kaputnik]

In Georgia, they use lottery money for tuition for Georgia college students. That would be a great use of some of the gambling (Can we agree to quit saying 'gaming'?) money generated in the county? Those pulltabs included, and make it county-wide.

[Ang]

That's a good idea Rog

[JHeath]

In theory, Mr. McKee's idea is great. I think we can all agree on that point.

But what about the 21st Century Scholars Program, which is already in place?
Taken from the financial aid page of the PNC Website:

21st Century Scholars Scholarship

Affirmed 21st Century Scholars who began the program in the seventh grade must graduate from an eligible Indiana high school with a final cumulative GPA of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. In addition to the General Education Requirements (GERS), students must enroll full time at an eligible Indiana college and abstain from criminal activity and the illegal use of controlled substances including alcohol. Failure to meet these requirements will result in the loss of the scholarship.

The programs are highlighted at http://www.in.gov/ssaci/programs/g-info.html.

[Roger Kaputnik]

Howsabout glomming onto that by adding a MC- or LPCo-specific stipend?

[Dave]

In theory, Mr. McKee's idea is great. I think we can all agree on that point.

But what about the 21st Century Scholars Program, which is already in place?
Taken from the financial aid page of the PNC Website:

Hmm, PNC really needs to update their links. Look here instead of their link.

That looks like a great program, but the cutoffs for financial aid seem to me to be pretty low. I feel sorry for the single mom with one kid who makes $30,000 a year -- she doesn't qualify. One of the things about the Kalamazoo Promise which would make me consider moving there if I had kids (which is one of the goals of the project, to get people to move to and live in Kalamazoo and attend their public schools) is that family income is not a factor when determining eligibility.

This post has been edited by Dave: Aug 7 2008, 01:00 PM

[Roger Kaputnik]

The scholarships should be based on SCHOLARSHIP, not need.

[CaddyRich]

Maybe I'm being a little "smooth-cortexed" (had to borrow it, Rog!) about this, but wouldn't it be more of an economic benefit tool as they say in the article if the graduate came back to their community after graduation and used their knowledge to benefit the community? Unfortunately, many of our best and brightest "rip off the rear view mirror" and never look back on Our Fair City.

[Dave]

But how do you make that happen? The reason the "best and brightest" are moving on is due to job opportunities elsewhere.

And the kinds of jobs kids with college diplomas are looking for are not going to be the kind of manufacturing jobs that it appears the folks at City Hall are obsessed with -- first, you don't need a college degree to work on an assembly line, and second, those jobs are not coming back until manufacturing here can be competitive with manufacturing in China or India (which is to say, not anytime soon).

College grads are looking for white collar jobs, which are within commuting distance of MC via the South Shore, but young college grads without kids are probably going to prefer living in Chicago for the social life, and young college grads with kids are probably not going to want to have their kids in the MCAS system -- though something like the "Kalamazoo plan" for MC might encourage that somewhat. Even so, the reputation of the MCAS very likely would continue to keep young families away in droves.

[kharris]

But how do you make that happen? The reason the "best and brightest" are moving on is due to job opportunities elsewhere.

And the kinds of jobs kids with college diplomas are looking for are not going to be the kind of manufacturing jobs that it appears the folks at City Hall are obsessed with -- first, you don't need a college degree to work on an assembly line, and second, those jobs are not coming back until manufacturing here can be competitive with manufacturing in China or India (which is to say, not anytime soon).

College grads are looking for white collar jobs, which are within commuting distance of MC via the South Shore, but young college grads without kids are probably going to prefer living in Chicago for the social life, and young college grads with kids are probably not going to want to have their kids in the MCAS system -- though something like the "Kalamazoo plan" for MC might encourage that somewhat. Even so, the reputation of the MCAS very likely would continue to keep young families away in droves.

So then are we back to saying that we need to fix what's broke before we try to move forward with new incentives?

[Southsider2k12]

The biggest wake up call to me when I ran for school board was how many of our kids go to school with zero expectations of ever amounting to anything. Ideally a program like this could be something that the Superintendant of Schools would walk into each Kindergarden with on the first day of school and talk to the kids about. It may sound cliche now because of the current Presidential campaign, but HOPE is the one thing that these kids need more than anything. Telling them from day one that the REALISTIC opportunity out of the slums exists for them, and that all they have to do is follow this path to do it would be the best possible thing that MC could give them.

Now when you get into the adult realm of how to pay for it, and the like, that is where we are going to have problems. But it also makes you go back and question all of the money we have spent on nothing in this City since the casino came into existance. I don't know about anyone else, but I would gladly give up some services in order to put a program like this into life.

[CaddyRich]

But how do you make that happen? The reason the "best and brightest" are moving on is due to job opportunities elsewhere.

And the kinds of jobs kids with college diplomas are looking for are not going to be the kind of manufacturing jobs that it appears the folks at City Hall are obsessed with -- first, you don't need a college degree to work on an assembly line, and second, those jobs are not coming back until manufacturing here can be competitive with manufacturing in China or India (which is to say, not anytime soon).

College grads are looking for white collar jobs, which are within commuting distance of MC via the South Shore, but young college grads without kids are probably going to prefer living in Chicago for the social life, and young college grads with kids are probably not going to want to have their kids in the MCAS system -- though something like the "Kalamazoo plan" for MC might encourage that somewhat. Even so, the reputation of the MCAS very likely would continue to keep young families away in droves.

Thanks for expounding on my point, Dave. I fail to see how this is an economic development tool for Our Fair City...unless you find colleges with degree programs in bartending, waitressing, sweater folding, or blackjack dealing.

[JHeath]

Thanks for expounding on my point, Dave. I fail to see how this is an economic development tool for Our Fair City...unless you find colleges with degree programs in bartending, waitressing, sweater folding, or blackjack dealing.

I thought Boyd Gaming already provided that training...

[Dave]

So then are we back to saying that we need to fix what's broke before we try to move forward with new incentives?

I'd say new incentives are good, but fixing what's already broken is important as well.

I have to say I'm not the most informed person when it comes to the problems of the MCAS, but from what I've been able to gather, an objective evaluation would have to come to the conclusion that it's "broken." I have no idea how it could be fixed, but personally, if I were made King, the first thing I would do would be to replace most of the people designated "administration," seeing as they're the ones responsible for things getting to where they are today.

This post has been edited by Dave: Aug 8 2008, 02:06 PM