The story of the Kalamazoo Promise is utterly inspiring. It’s a story about the power of community to dramatically alter the future of its children. It’s a story about giving students and families, regardless of income or history, the opportunity to hope. It’s a story about a city’s aspiration to build itself up by investing, dramatically, in education.
Throughout the city’s tumultuous history, there are examples of prosperity, innovation, poverty, and unemployment. The surrounding metro region has a population of 326,000, and has lost 16,000 jobs since 2007. But regardless of how bleak the outlook, Kalamazoo citizens never stopped striving for a better future. Between 1997 and 2004, there were an astonishing 64 local revitalization efforts. And then, in 2005, the promise was made:
The superintendent of Kalamazoo’s public schools, Janice M. Brown, shocked the community by announcing that unnamed donors were pledging to pay the tuition at Michigan’s public colleges, universities and community colleges for every student who graduated from the district’s high schools. All of a sudden, students who had little hope of higher education saw college in their future. Called the Kalamazoo Promise, the program — blind to family income levels, to pupils’ grades and even to disciplinary and criminal records — would be the most inclusive, most generous scholarship program in America. (Ted Fishman, The New York Times)
As much as this Promise is an amazing display of compassion, it’s just as much an important social experiment and innovative economic development effort.
“Other communities invest in things like arenas or offer tax incentives for businesses or revitalize their waterfronts,” says Michelle Miller-Adams, a political scientist at the W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, which is located in the city. “The Kalamazoo Promise tries to develop the local economy with a long-term investment in human capital that is intended to change the town from the bottom up.” In this regard, the Promise can be seen as an exorbitant ante, staked by private funds, that calls to Kalamazoo’s better angels. It stokes hometown pride, prods citizens to engage and pulls businesses and their leaders into the public sphere. To date, Miller-Adams says, Kalamazoo’s Promise has inspired donors in 25 other cities and towns around the United States — including Pittsburgh, New Haven and El Dorado, Ark. — to start, or consider starting, similar programs. (Ted Fishman, The New York Times)
By investing in the educational achievement of its students, Kalamazoo better ensures that they have the skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century workforce. And by instilling in them such a strong sense of community, it’s a good bet that these graduates will stay connected to the city, giving back and building it up.
So I’m left wondering - what could this mean for the future of education? How could this story inspire other communities? What role does Civic Infrastructure play in an effort like this? How is this experiment shaped by the theory of collective impact, and the belief in a cradle to career view of education?
Please read the full article here, and share your thoughts in our comments section. Also, be on the lookout for an upcoming blog post from Jeff Edmondson in which he’ll share his thoughts on the Kalamazoo Promise.
