Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Does Free College Work? Kalamazoo Offers Some Answers
Wall Street Journal ^ | June 28, 2019 | Josh Mitchell and Michelle Hackman

Posted on 06/29/2019 5:19:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1

...

Yet city leaders have found the benefits of the Kalamazoo Promise, as the free college plan is known, go only so far. Just 38% of students who finished high school between 2006 and 2012 earned a college degree or certificate, according to the Upjohn Institute, a nonprofit research center that has studied the program. This was up only slightly from the 34% average for the three years before the program existed.

Among black students, just 23% from the classes of 2006 through 2012 earned a college credential, compared with 22% before the program.

The percentage of Kalamazoo residents living in poverty, at 31%, is higher than it was at the start of this century, when the share living in families at or below the federal poverty threshold stood at 24%, Census data show.

“It’s like an onion,” said Brad Hershbein of the Upjohn Institute. “You take away the outer layer—financial need. Once that’s gone you see these other layers, or barriers, are left. The inner layers are problems you wouldn’t have known are a big issue. ”Among them are high rates of single-parent households, teen pregnancy and homelessness.

...

Those receiving the most dollars from the program have been female, white and from middle- and upper-income families, according to the data from Upjohn. It said that was because those groups are far more likely to go to a four-year college, rather than a community college, and to graduate.

College enrollment has soared across all racial groups. Among all students who graduated from a Kalamazoo public high school from 2006 through 2017, 75% enrolled in college within six months, versus a national average of about 67% and only 58% in Kalamazoo before the program, according to the Upjohn Institute.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: college; education; freecollege; kalamazoo; michigan; upjohn
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last
Most people don't have the IQ and motivation to get a real 4-year college degree, and "free college" does not change that. The academic qualifications for free college in Kalamazoo are very low -- a C in at least 75% of high school classes. The program is privately funded, and people have the right to fund such experiments with their own money, but the Democrats want to force you to pay for it.
1 posted on 06/29/2019 5:19:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Feel good programs once again we pay for that don’t work because the people don’t want to work for it, just give them a degree and send them home.


2 posted on 06/29/2019 5:29:25 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (nicdip.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1
The inner layers are problems you wouldn’t have known are a big issue. ”Among them are high rates of single-parent households, teen pregnancy and homelessness.

One would know they're a big issue if one took about 2 minutes to think about it.

3 posted on 06/29/2019 5:33:23 AM PDT by Flick Lives (MSM, the Enemy of the People since 1898)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

This country became great because we had no handouts prior to FDR. This country became great because America is a land of opportunity for those who want it and work for it. Nothing good comes from handouts except dependency and resentment. Entitlements is a dirty word to me. Anyone receiving welfare should be required to provide a service back to the American taxpayer unless they are physically unable because of a birth defect or an act of God. Today’s meme is black reparations! To those I say, go back to Africa and get it from them then stay there.


4 posted on 06/29/2019 5:44:25 AM PDT by New Jersey Realist ( Be kind to your children. They will determine where you live when you get old.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“The academic qualifications for free college in Kalamazoo are very low — a C in at least 75% of high school classes”

Don’t think for a moment Teachers are not doing WHATEVER it takes to make sure no one comes up short of those less than lofty standards. 90% are leftist loons and fudging grades is child’s play for a true Unicorn and Skittles Rainbow believers.


5 posted on 06/29/2019 5:47:22 AM PDT by DAC21
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

If you go and look at European designed ‘free’ colleges...you’d have to go and achieve fairly decent grades (strictly A/B student) and they’d only offer about half of the subject areas that you see with some US universities. They’d also let you go fairly quickly if you were partying and only marginally passing half your classes.


6 posted on 06/29/2019 5:49:06 AM PDT by pepsionice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Flick Lives
The inner layers are problems you wouldn’t have known are a big issue. ”Among them are high rates of single-parent households, teen pregnancy and homelessness.

Only to Leftists. The Media have been downplaying the effect of single-parent houselholds and denying the causes of teen pregnancy for decades.

7 posted on 06/29/2019 5:51:44 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

As always all about the money. Get a bunch of 85 IQ students. Put them in their own remedial classes to not interrupt the real students. House them in separate housing so as not to interrupt the sleep and safety of the real students from all night non stop partying and general loudness. For the tiny percentage that graduate, create separate ceremonies so the real students are not subjected to brawls and loud hooping and hollering and jerry springerisn, showing the world that illiterate people can graduate. Meanwhile most will not graduate, so be sure to charge the government (ie taxpayer) in full before they begin. And since it is government guaranteed, feel free to chare craptons. At least they separate the fake students. The real students of color don’t need to be associated with them


8 posted on 06/29/2019 6:03:23 AM PDT by dsrtsage (For Leftists, World History starts every day at breakfast)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

High school grades are not a good way to predict college success. Everyone learns how to cheat in high school.


9 posted on 06/29/2019 6:03:27 AM PDT by cnsmom (G)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Why should a hardworking taxpayer have to foot the bill for an ill qualified student who majors in subjects that will offer few,if any, living wage jobs.


10 posted on 06/29/2019 6:03:49 AM PDT by monocle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ronnie raygun

This is not paid for by the government. Kalamazoo has several billionaires thanks to Stryker and Upjohn (now Pfizer).

The Kalamazoo Promise is run off a self-sustaining trust. It started out just for state tuition and they have expanded it to any Michigan college, public or private.

To get the full benefit, you need to go K-12 without a gap. Otherwise it is a partial benefit depending on how many years you went.

The problem is Kalamazoo is a very blue city that does the stupid stuff that cities run by Democrats do. AND the Kalamazoo school system is not very good.

The same group that saturated the promise also have offered to give 70 million to the city. That has been fun to watch heads explode over as well.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2016/08/27/donors-kalamazoo-promise/88998458/

The article is right - there are many things besides the cost that prevent college education.


11 posted on 06/29/2019 6:08:09 AM PDT by JstABrdPstr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: monocle

They shouldn’t.

And on this case, they aren’t.


12 posted on 06/29/2019 6:09:21 AM PDT by JstABrdPstr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

This, like all leftist schemes, was destined to fail. Whatever they try fails, and they try it again under a different name, and that fails too.


13 posted on 06/29/2019 6:18:39 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1
The Viet Nam GI bill worked quite well but this prinicple will not work with the whole system. GIs attended college and for the most part the investment was payed off three years after graduation in increased income with increased taxes. This of course was when colleges actually taught something useful.
14 posted on 06/29/2019 6:40:27 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

Only if all the employees at the College work for Free ,LOL


15 posted on 06/29/2019 6:48:33 AM PDT by butlerweave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

so, the short answer to the headline question is...no?


16 posted on 06/29/2019 6:57:10 AM PDT by stylin19a (2016 - Best.Election.Of.All.Times.Ever.In.The.History.Of.Ever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: reaganaut1

“Most people don’t have the IQ and motivation to get a real 4-year college degree,...”

Sad, but true.


17 posted on 06/29/2019 7:00:19 AM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Jesus Christ is not a religion. He's the Truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dsrtsage
And since it is government guaranteed, feel free to chare craptons.

I've never chared anything, particularly with craptons, but it sounds damned interesting!

18 posted on 06/29/2019 7:02:07 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Mr Ramsbotham

Not a violent guy, but I would love to get my hands on the inventor of the iphone keypad and take him to the woodshed. I am somewhat of a spelling nazi, but I almost never see mistakes on the iphone until immediately after I press post


19 posted on 06/29/2019 7:06:48 AM PDT by dsrtsage (For Leftists, World History starts every day at breakfast)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Flick Lives

Work on drug addiction and you lessen 2 of those problems by miles.


20 posted on 06/29/2019 7:09:39 AM PDT by tiki
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-32 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson