Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer plans to urge state lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide free community college tuition for all high school graduates during her sixth State of the State speech on Wednesday.
Whitmer also prioritized community college access in her annual address last year. State lawmakers responded by temporarily lowering the minimum age for free tuition from 25 to 21 years old. The Democratic governor now wants to expand the program by removing all age requirements for free community college, according to details of her plan provided to The Associated Press by Whitmer’s office.
Whitmer’s administration created the Michigan Reconnect program in 2021, aiming to increase the percentage of the state’s workforce with a postsecondary degree or training from 50.5% to 60% by 2030. It made Michigan residents 25 years and older eligible for free community college tuition.
Seems like a great idea to me. Invest in the population and it’ll pay off, long term.
One of my greatest regrets is dropping out of college. I’m doing ok, thankfully, but it hasn’t been an easy path.
You mean requiring a whole population to pay out of pocket for absolutely everything before they can afford it doesn’t lead to growth?
This is one of those regrets in life you can actually undo!
I dropped out of Community College after a year there at age 19. I went back to that same Community College at about 34 and finished my Associates Degree at night/weekends while working full time. One really nice thing was all of my credits earned as a teenager were still valid after almost 14 years away. I meant that my time there as a teenager wasn’t wasted. I transferred all my credits to University again doing school at night/weekends and finished my Bachelors at age 39. It was one of the best decisions of my life.
Before going back to school I had all kind of anxiety about it. It was much easier as mature adult than as a teenager. I’m happy to share advice or just encouragement if it will help you.
The Republicans will hate this one trick.
Certainly a much better approach than “I love the poorly educated”.
As society gets more complex, it’s more important than ever for everyone to be more educated. The death of journalism, rise of online scams, gutting of consumer protections and degeneration of politics makes it more critical for people to learn to think