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Education and Economic Renewal in Kalamazoo Upjohn Press Upjohn Research home page 1-1-2009 The Power of a Promise: Education and Economic Renewal in Kalamazoo Michelle Miller-Adams W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, [email protected] Upjohn Author(s) ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6869-9063 Follow this and additional works at: https://research.upjohn.org/up_press Part of the Education Commons, and the Regional Economics Commons Citation Miller-Adams, Michelle. 2009. The Power of a Promise: Education and Economic Renewal in Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. https://doi.org/10.17848/ 9781441612656 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. This title is brought to you by the Upjohn Institute. For more information, please contact [email protected]. § § § “Michelle Miller-Adams captures the truly unique story of the Kalamazoo Promise without losing sight of the universal lessons it offers us. The Power of a Promise is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the future of economic and com- munity development in our country.” –Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, State of Michigan “The Kalamazoo Promise is a fascinating experiment with enormous implications for American education. Will the promise of free tuition inspire students to work harder in school? Will it draw more middle-class families back into the city’s public school system, enriching the learning environment for all? Michelle Miller-Adams provides a superb, thoroughly researched, and highly readable account of this closely watched, groundbreaking venture.” –Richard D. Kahlenberg, senior fellow, The Century Foundation and author of All Together Now: Creating Middle-Class Schools through Public School Choice “Across America, economic developers struggle to overcome the disincentives created by low-performance, poverty-impacted school districts. Michelle Miller-Adams offers an insightful first look at the impact of the Kalamazoo Promise in revitalizing a city’s declining job market and aging neighborhoods. If ‘housing policy is school policy,’ the Kalamazoo Promise tests whether ‘school policy is housing policy.’” –David Rusk, former mayor of Albuquerque and author of Cities Without Suburbs and Inside Game/Outside Game “Michelle Miller-Adams does a superb job of exploring the political science, econom- ics, sociology, and psychology of the Kalamazoo Promise. Her book begins as an edu- cation whodunit and quickly shifts to a policy wonk’s dream. As with The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the last (and unfinished) work of Charles Dickens, the reader is left with a deliciously tantalizing question. Unlike in Dickens’s mystery, however, the Promise question is: In the next 20 years, how will Kalamazoo be able to use its Promise to continue its transformation?” –Michael F. Rice, PhD, Superintendent, Kalamazoo Public Schools “The Power of a Promise captures the dramatic history of the Kalamazoo Promise’s first three years and explores the work to be done to contribute to the region’s trans- formation for decades to come. Assessing progress to date, Miller-Adams also gives useful suggestions about what remains to be done. Her book reveals that the success of the Kalamazoo Promise rests not on scholarship dollars alone, but on individual and organizational actions in support of the complementary goals of education and economic development. Having been deeply involved in the work of the Kalamazoo Promise, Miller-Adams portrays a true picture of its vision that, ‘Greater Kalamazoo will become a world leader in education, investing in youth to elevate the quality of life for each resident.’” –Janice M. Brown, EdD, Executive Director, The Kalamazoo Promise § § § The Power of a Promise The Power of a Promise Education and Economic Renewal in Kalamazoo Michelle Miller-Adams 2009 W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research Kalamazoo, Michigan Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Miller-Adams, Michelle, 1959- The power of a promise : education and economic renewal in Kalamazoo / Michelle Miller-Adams. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-88099-339-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-88099-339-1 (pbk : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-88099-340-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-88099-340-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. High school graduates—Scholarships, fellowships, etc.—Michigan—Kalamazoo. 2. Scholarships—Michigan—Kalamazoo. I. Title. LB2338.M53 2008 378.3'40977417—dc22 2008052863 © 2009 W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research 300 S. Westnedge Avenue Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007-4686 The facts presented in this study and the observations and viewpoints expressed are the sole responsibility of the author. They do not necessarily represent positions of the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Cover design by Carol A.S. Derks. Index prepared by Diane Worden. Printed in the United States of America. Printed on recycled paper. Contents Preface ix Part 1: Origins 1 A Not-So-Simple Gift 1 Revitalizing the Urban Core 21 Overcoming Divisions 22 Mobilizing and Organizing Resources 23 Growth without Jobs? 23 Managing Expectations 24 2 What Came Before 29 A Textual Tour 31 Economic Ebb and Flow 38 The Evolution of Education 43 Civil Rights and the Schools 46 A Giving Spirit 51 3 The Kalamazoo Promise in Context 59 A Revolutionary Idea 61 The Kalamazoo Promise as a Scholarship Program 67 The Kalamazoo Promise as an Economic Development Strategy 77 Part 2: Impact 4 The Challenge of Community Alignment 103 The Triumphs and Travails of the Saturday Morning Group 108 The Community Steps Up 115 The Evolution of the Kalamazoo Promise Scholarship 123 Research and Evaluation Activities 127 Promise Week 129 5 Impact on Students and Schools 141 Enrollment Growth in the Kalamazoo Public Schools 142 Enrollment Impact on Non-KPS Schools 145 Who Is Using the Kalamazoo Promise? 149 Ensuring Student Success 158 Difficult Trade-Offs 168 v 6 Prospects for Economic Change 177 Economic Development Challenges 177 Modest Gain from Scholarship Funds and School Spending 180 The Housing Market Puzzle 183 Raising the Community’s Profile 187 Building an Educated Workforce 190 Forecasting the Future 195 Aligning the Community 198 Part 3: Looking Forward 7 Assessing the Impact of the Kalamazoo Promise 205 Human Capital 208 Economic Assets 211 Social Capital 215 References 225 The Author 237 Index 239 About the Institute 257 vi Figures 1.1 Map of KPS Boundaries and Surrounding Community 21 2.1 Kalamazoo City Map 32 3.1 Paths to Success 95 5.1 Long-Term KPS Enrollment Trend 143 5.2 Number of Kalamazoo Promise Users Attending Local 155 Institutions, Fall 2008 Tables 2.1 Population Trends, 1970–2007 31 2.2 School Characteristics, 2007 37 3.1 Educational Attainment—Residents with Four Years or More 83 of College 5.1 Kalamazoo Promise Summary Data 151 5.2 Demographic Data for Kalamazoo Promise Users 152 5.3 College and University Attendance by Kalamazoo Promise Users, 154 Fall Semester 2008 6.1 Projected Increase in Annual Disposable Income for KPS Families 196 6.2 Population and Labor Force Assumptions, 2006–2008 197 6.3 Projected Employment and Income Effects of the 198 Kalamazoo Promise vii Preface This story began for me at 7:59 a.m. on November 11, 2005, minutes after taking my daughter to preschool in our hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Tuning in to the local public radio station at the top of the hour, I was surprised and a bit puzzled to hear that the superintendent of the Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) had announced a new scholarship program that would send all graduates of the school district to college for free. After spending 25 years in higher education, first as a student and then a professor, I knew a fair amount about financial aid, including these two basic facts: almost all scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic merit or financial need, and few cover the entire cost of college. The news seemed too simple and sweeping to be true. Later that day, the local newspaper offered these specifics: The Kalamazoo Promise would provide scholarships to every KPS graduate who had resided in the district for at least four years. The scholarships could be used at any public college or university in the state, and, depending on how long one had attended KPS, would cover between 65 percent and 100 percent of tuition and mandatory fees. For students who had lived in the district and attended its schools since kindergarten, the full cost of college tuition and fees would be paid by the anonymous donors who had bestowed the Kalamazoo Promise on my community. It was immediately clear that this program held the potential to transform not just the college-going patterns of Kalamazoo’s young people and the per- sonal finances of their parents, but the entire community—indeed, even the region. As an investment in the human capital of every high school graduate of an urban school district, it was unprecedented. As a catalyst for other invest- ments—well, who could tell? My years in Kalamazoo had been marked by alternating bouts of hope and anxiety as I watched the city and its urban school district struggle against a tide of corporate downsizing and persistent unemployment. Every step forward—a new hospital building or the renovation of the downtown mall—seemed to be followed by a step backward—another plant closing or the next in a series of corporate mergers. As high-paying jobs evaporated, middle-class families left the region, which decreased overall enrollment and led to a growing concen- tration of poor and minority children in the public schools. As perceptions of the school district deteriorated, many of the middle-class families still living in the city opted to send their children to private or parochial schools, or to move a short distance to a neighboring school district.
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