[caption id=”attachment_86315″ align=”aligncenter” width=”2985″]AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
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There has been a lot of hype recently surrounding various proposals that make a college education more attainable and affordable. Politicians are hoping to both address the $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt, and galvanize young voters before the 2016 election.
Earlier this year, President Obama proposed making two years of community college free, and 2016 presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio have both recently come forth with their own proposals to overhaul the higher education system and help those who are struggling to repay their student loans.
Tennessee and Oregon have both taken matters into their own hands and passed state laws allowing students who meet certain requirements to attend community college tuition-free.
The small town of Baldwin, Michigan put this theory into practice back in 2009, according to a piece by The Atlantic. The tiny town of 1,200 was able to change its whole approach to higher education when it started the “Baldwin Promise” program, a fund offering $5,000 per year for any student from the Baldwin public schools who attends a public or private college in Michigan. The money is offered to students after they have applied for Pell Grants and other scholarships.
The fund was started by a Baldwin resident who encouraged community members to pool their money and contribute to the college fund. The idea was modeled after the Kalamazoo Promise, which pays for 100 percent of tuition and fees at public colleges and universities in Michigan, funded through anonymous donations.
Back in 2005, only 12 of the 32 kids who graduated high school in Baldwin enrolled in college, and only 2 actually received a bachelor’s degree. This year, nearly all students who graduated from the high school are headed to either a four-year college, community college, or technical school.
It is still unknown whether the Baldwin program will have long-lasting success, but it has so far appeared to successfully change the way students and parents think about education and attending college.
Read the full story at The Atlantic.
