Diversify economy through higher education, governor says

Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she hopes to diversify Michigan’s economy by removing barriers to higher education to double the number of Michigan college graduates.

Michigan needs to reshape its economy as national economic trends shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based economy, she said Thursday in a conference call with college reporters.

“We have to recognize that Michigan’s economy has changed,” she said. “What worked for your parents doesn’t work for you anymore.”

Granholm is encouraging students to contact their state senators and representatives and tell them to support the reinstatement of the Michigan Promise. She is visiting seven universities and one community college this week, including CMU at 9:15 a.m. Thursday in the Charles V. Park Library Auditorium, to discuss the Michigan Promise Scholarship.

Funding higher education is the Granholm’s answer to the state’s economic woes.

But allocating more tax dollars to fund public education is easier said than done. Michigan is generating 40 percent less revenue than it was in 2000, and funding for public schools and universities has been cut dramatically.

Cuts to scholarships

The Michigan Legislature did not include the Michigan Promise Scholarship in the budget it gave Granholm Oct. 30 despite the fact that Granholm included the Michigan Promise in her 2010 Executive Budget in February, said Granholm’s Deputy Press Secretary Megan Brown.

The legislature’s budget decreased state funding to 15 state universities by 0.4 percent, cut student financial aid more than 61 percent and cut $500 million from public school funding.

“CMU students will be impacted (by the budget cuts),” said Diane Fleming, associate director of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

Not only have Central Michigan University students lost the Michigan Promise Scholarship, but Fleming cited other grants and scholarships that were cut, including the Michigan Education Opportunity Grant, some work study grants and the Adult Part-Time Grant.

Fleming said the Michigan Competitive Scholarship was cut by 50 percent and the available funds will only be administered to students who currently receive it.

“At the moment, we have no idea how much money returning students are going to get,” she said.

To help fund public schools, Granholm suggested revenue increases, including sin taxes on tobacco products, eliminate increases in state income tax personal exemptions and refuse to award businesses some tax breaks.

To reinstate the Michigan Promise, Granholm wants to freeze the 10 percent credit increase for the Earned Income Tax Credit and redirect the money allocated to the EITC toward the Michigan Promise.

State Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, said he would want to know the mechanics of what Granholm is suggesting.

“If the numbers work out, I’d certainly look at it in a positive way,” he said.

In lieu of losing the Michigan Promise, students across the state continue to pinch pennies to fund higher tuition rates, although most end up having to take out numerous loans.

“Students need to consider the fact that Michigan is going to be in fiscal distress for more than this one year,” said assistant political science professor J. Cherie Strachan.