Michigan Promise axed in Michigan’s 2009-10 budget

The Michigan Promise scholarship program was not included in Michigan’s $44.5 billion state budget signed into law Friday by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

With $128 million cut in total state spending, Granholm approved $31.7 million for need-based grants for 35,000 students at private colleges.

The Michigan Promise was not restored despite vetoes of more than 70 other items in the budget.

And Central Michigan University will feel the impact. The scholarship delivered $4.2 million to 4,200 students in the 2008-09 school year, said Kirk Yats, associate director of operations for Scholarships and Financial Aid.

“We’re very disappointed for our students and to us a university,” he said. “We’d like to see the Promise restored.”

The state-sponsored scholarship was signed into law on Dec. 21, 2006, replacing the Michigan Merit Award. It provided $4,000 to students attending at least a two-year institution.

Granholm said the “fight is not over” in a Friday morning conference call with journalists. According to the Detroit Free Press, she wants to restore public university scholarships.

“They’ve been talking about this for a while,” said Toby Roth, CMU interim director of government relations. “The writing was on the wall. Didn’t leave many options for the governor.”

Seeking alternatives

State Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, believes the money is there in the budget, from misappropriations for salaried jobs to a 10 percent increase in the state supplement to the Earned Income Tax Credit, which could total $160 million in government expenditures.

“I think we should tighten our belts like families are doing,” he said. “There are revenues in the state budget we could use for essential state programs.”

CMU has been anticipating these cuts.

This year’s freshmen and transfer students were eligible for grant money from CMU, provided they qualified for the federal Pell Grant.

The university allocated $27.5 million in financial aid for students in 2009, although it is unclear how much actually went toward it, Roth said.

“The hope was to offset the loss of the Michigan Promise,” Roth said. “Hopefully, it won’t have too negative of an impact.”

Students receiving money from the Michigan Promise will feel the effects once the spring semester starts.

Yats hopes losing the Promise scholarship will not be a deal-breaker for any student.

“We would think we could work with students and find alternative loan programs,” Yats said. “We recognize every family is in a different situation. Obviously, $1,000 is $1,000 of free money.”

The Promise was given to 96,000 students statewide last year, according to the Detroit Free Press.