A state House committee voted Thursday to add $120 million to the budget to restore the Michigan Promise grants.
This reversed a decision by the state Senate and House conference committee to eliminate the grant Wednesday.
State Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, said he supports doing something that can fund the scholarship, but there is no indication where the money is coming from.
“It’s like having your checkbook all gone and writing something you don’t have — there is no loose $120 million around,” Caul said.
The Michigan Promise grant was given to all high school graduates that passed the requirements beginning in 2007. The scholarship gives $4,000 to those attending schools for postsecondary education in the form of $1,000 a year or $2,000 for a student’s last two years. Central Michigan University students were not awarded the Promise this year because the school decided to wait until the state budget was completed.
The scholarship has been given to 2,792 students on campus.
He said the only way to fund the program would be to cut other programs’ budgets to make room for the scholarship.
“In some point in the future, there might be another proposal to reinstate the scholarship but, right now, there is not,” he said. “We’re collecting fewer and fewer dollars each month and, if somebody is going to make a proposal, then we’ll have to identify what program we are cutting and there has been no discussion that this could occur sometime in the future.”
Associate Director of Financial Aid Diane Fleming said the scholarship reinstatement is still undecided and she would like it to be available to the students immediately.
“I think this is still a very undecided situation if the legislature votes to eliminate the scholarship to balance the budget,” she said. “I think this situation is in a great deal of flux, and there is a lot to play out until anything is definitely known.”
Fleming also said the department was told legislation will be introduced after Oct. 1 to reinstate the scholarship, but there is still a challenge.
“Where will they find the money for that scholarship? Because quite a few students at CMU were promised the money and they don’t have it. The state is not keeping its promise to students,” she said.
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Sherri Keaton
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The state is not only, not keeping its promise it has lied, and lost all credibility if this scholarship money is not delivered. Kids have already started the semester, I have heard a lot of colleges want it by Oct 1 or the kids can pack. Tax pop, tax bottled water which is more impotant pop and bottled water or MI kids with 4 year degrees? Lets get priorities together. If the money does not come in we are showing our young MI residents that givt can not be trusted, and it might go through their minds why should I pay back student loans I just can’t “come up with the money.” We don’t want MI to look like its being run by a box of rocks get that money to the kids.
I’m not a Central student, but it has been hard for me to cover my tuition. I don’t have it as bad as many students, but I’m paying my tuition myself, and I was counting on that scholarship to help. The fact that the government is not honoring a scholarship that they promised to so many students makes it seem like continuing education is not as important to them as it should be. This was definitely a hard blow for far too many students. The government really needs to get their priorities straight and figure out how to keep their promises.