Pontiac pegged as Promise Zone
By DIANA DILLABER MURRAY
Of The Oakland Press
PONTIAC — The Pontiac school board has put the school district on the fast track in what is becoming a statewide competition to create a Promise Zone that would guarantee graduates a college education.
The board voted Friday at a brief special meeting to schedule a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 5 at the urging of state Rep. Tim Melton, D-Auburn Hills, who said only 10 Promise Zones — similar to the one created in Kalamazoo — will be authorized throughout the state.
Melton sponsored the Promise Zone legislation with Pontiac School District in mind, and it was signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm this week. Melton and Granholm are expecting the Pontiac district to be the first Promise Zone in the state, he said.
Board Vice President Gill Garrett, and trustees Robert Bass and Karen Cain all had questions and concerns about the process and the details of how the Promise Zone will work.
But the board agreed to schedule the public hearing to start the process immediately with the commitment of Melton to provide the answers to all their questions during the 20-day period leading up to the hearing. The process will go no further than the hearing without approval of the board.
“This is an exciting opportunity for the city and the district,” Melton said, explaining that the promise of a college education would bring more families and businesses into the district and increase property values and the tax base the way it did in Kalamazoo.
“As I drafted the bill, Pontiac was number one in my concern. The number one reason kids don’t go to college is money,” Melton said. A district is eligible to be a Promise Zone if the youth poverty rate is above the state average and the district qualifies, he said. The state Department of Treasury accepts or rejects the applications.
Melton said once children know tuition will be paid, they begin planning and expecting to continue with education after high school.
“In the second grade in Kalamazoo, colleges begin recruiting kids. They know they are going to college. The psyche starts changing. Interest in high school goes up.”
Under the legislation, the school board would create a Promise Zone Authority board and appoint nine of the 11 members. The other two would be appointed by the speaker of the House and the leader of the Senate majority. The authority would cover full tuition to any public school in Michigan and a capped amount to any more expensive private Michigan college.
The Promise Zone Authority board would set the criteria — such as the required gradepoint average — for the scholarships and would be responsible for raising money in the private sector to fund them. No school board members would be on the authority.
In the third year, after two years of fund raising, the state would authorize the district to keep a percentage of funds generated by property tax growth to put toward scholarships. Children in all the cities and townships in the district would benefit, not just those who live in Pontiac. And the fund would reap revenue from growth in property taxes from all the entities in the school district.
Bass, Garrett and Cain said they are concerned and disappointed the board would not have any part in decision making, such as setting the criteria that makes a student eligible. That would be entirely the authority’s role.
“I want to make sure our students can take advantage of it,” Bass said.
As far as Melton is concerned, he said, “I think the criteria should be (a free college education) for any student who graduates high school,” which is the criteria set in Kalamazoo.
Melton said the school board will have some influence because they interview and select the members of the authority. School attorney George Pitchfork said trustees will also have the right to remove authority members.
Pitchford also advised the board that they could have a trustee on the authority as a nonvoting member to provide input from the board and to keep trustees up to date on the authority’s activities.
One thing that was worrisome to Bass is the fact that students and their parents would have to show they did their best to obtain other scholarships and grants before the Promise Zone fund would cover the difference.
Contact staff writer Diana Dillaber Murray at (248) 745-4638 or diana.dillaber@oakpress.com.
1 comment:
The second cohort....a Promise zone.....who would have thought it possible...
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