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David Nicholas: Michigan first offered a free K-12 education for students in 1874. Many careers in the 21st century are now demanding a K-14 model.
Michigan has two programs that offer two years of free community college tuition, but many are not taking advantage of it.
That's according to Doug Ross of Level Up Michigan, an initiative trying to get more eligible people into the programs, as he told me.
David Nicholas: What is the basic structure of these programs and how long have they been available?
Doug Ross: Well, one of them is called “Reconnect,” and that basically says that if you're 21 or older and you don't currently have a college degree, meaning a bachelor's or an associate's degree, you can attend the equivalent of two years of community college tuition free. You can pursue a certified job skill, a trade, an associate degree, or the first two years of a BA.
And the second one's called the Community College Guarantee, and that says for every high school graduate in Michigan, if within 15 months of graduating from high school, you apply as a full-time student at community college, it will be tuition free, for the equivalent of two years again to pursue a job skill, a trade, or a college degree.
And the former has been in place for I think now five years. Community college guarantee is just going into its second year.
DN: How many folks have taken advantage? What is sort of the percentage of those folks in the population that have actually followed through with either of these options?
DR: And Michigan, despite having these really pretty progressive policies to provide access, is falling further and further behind the other states in terms of growth, in terms of per capita income, in terms of the well-being of its people.
The paradox is that despite being the leaders in terms of policy here, we're the laggards in terms of results. And what we found out through a lot of survey research is Michigan's still two things. Michigan is still has a lot of cultural ambivalence about higher education, which goes back to our industrial heyday in the 20th century, where you didn't really even need a high school degree to get a middle-class job.
And secondly, we found out in terms of these programs, 70% of the people never heard of them. They don't know that they exist.
DN: Since 2000, a couple of different really deep recessive cycles in the state economy brought about reaction from Lansing to set up certain industries to say, “This is where the trend is going to go. We need to add the training so that we can have many, many, many people going into the terms from there, whether it was technological or healthcare.” These programs as they are structured, then do they have any limitation of that or it's open to the full gamut of what skill programs you can do or the associates or the two years towards the bachelor?
DR: Full gamut. No restriction on what it is. Universal.
This is simply the next follow-on. 12 years is not enough anymore. You've got to be a learner. And so this is a way of the community saying, we want you to keep going.
DN: Is there a timeline then when you'd like to see that awareness get up to a certain percentage by a certain period in time to try to jumpstart this? What numbers are you looking at?
DR: We want to be 80% plus awareness by next fall.
DN: Doug, thanks very much for taking the time to talk with us. We appreciate the time.
DR: My pleasure, and thanks for getting the word out. That's exactly what we're looking for. Have a good day.
DN: That was Doug Ross with the nonprofit Level Up Michigan, working to raise awareness about Michigan programs that offer two years of paid community college.
