Quote:MIRACLE IN KALAMAZOO: Secret donation opens the door for students to go to college
BY LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
June 4, 2006
Elizabeth Lauer, 18, of Kalamazoo enters class on her second-to-last day of high school last Tuesday. Elizabeth, who is to graduate Tuesday from Phoenix High School, plans to attend Western Michigan University as one of the first recipients of the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship. (REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press)
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BY THE NUMBERS
380
Number of students eligible for the Kalamazoo Promise this year
310
Number of applications approved for the Kalamazoo Promise
$2 million
to $3 million
The amount of money the Kalamazoo Promise is projected to distribute this year in tuition
450
Number of new students Kalamazoo Public Schools expects to enroll for the 2006-07 school year
$3.3 million
The additional money the new enrollment will bring the district
Who is behind the Kalamazoo Promise?
Kalamazoo Mayor Hannah McKinney doesn't know. Neither does Bob Jorth, executive administrator of the scholarship fund. In fact, no one seems to know. Or they're not talking.
Among the rumors is that New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who grew up in Kalamazoo and attended Kalamazoo Central High School, is footing the bill.
His representatives deny it.
The mystery donor -- or donors -- is trying hard to keep the secret by working with state and federal regulators to ensure the Kalamazoo Promise is legal but anonymous.
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KALAMAZOO -- Elizabeth Lauer knows too well the sacrifices her mother, a single parent and former migrant worker, made to raise three children.
They "made me want to work hard to have the things I want in life," said Elizabeth, 18, a senior at Kalamazoo's Phoenix High School.
Her mother, Virginia Mills, barely had managed to finance the education of her older brother, who graduated this spring from Michigan State University. College seemed out of reach for Elizabeth.
Then came news of the Kalamazoo Promise.
The anonymously funded scholarship has changed Elizabeth's life and the lives of thousands of other students with its promise of full or partial tuition for nearly every graduate of Kalamazoo Public Schools.
"Words can't express what we feel," said Elizabeth, tears welling up in her eyes. "This is like a miracle."
Mills cried as she talked about what the tuition guarantee will mean for her daughter.
"I keep telling her I don't want her to be like me -- not having an education," she said. "I'm so happy for the promise."
In a district where enrollment has been on a downward spiral -- losing on average 250 students a year -- officials project that as many as 450 new students will enroll this fall because of the scholarship.
Students say the promise has motivated them to get better grades.
And a city where a quarter of the 77,000 residents live in poverty now feels revitalized.
"We really were in a crisis before the promise," Kalamazoo Mayor Hannah McKinney said.
Fiscal problems remain, she said, but now there is hope.
That hope is heard through the voices of the teenagers who now realize that the promise has the power to change their lives.
Elizabeth will attend Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where she'll decide between a career in business or medicine. Eventually, she wants to transfer to her dream school, MSU.
Her only regret -- one echoed by many students -- is that the promise was not part of the landscape sooner.
"I would have worked harder," said Elizabeth, who attends an alternative high school for students who have trouble succeeding in a traditional classroom setting.
A rosier future
It's hard to imagine one scholarship fund having as much impact on a school district as the Kalamazoo Promise is expected to have.
Like most urban districts, Kalamazoo Public Schools has struggled financially and academically. Its MEAP scores are well below state averages. More than half the students -- 61 % -- receive free or reduced-price lunches, a common barometer of school poverty.
The district has cut $20 million from its budget over the last seven years.
But just months after the promise was announced last fall, administrators now are looking at a decidedly rosier financial picture.
The current enrollment of 10,200 is expected to grow by 450 students for the 2006-07 school year, with the increases coming from charter schools, private schools and new residents, Deputy Superintendent Gary Start said.
And instead of cutting its budget, the district actually is going to have more money this year. The boost in enrollment is likely to bring an additional $3.3 million -- $2.3 million of which would go toward hiring new teachers.
The remaining money might be used for efforts such as lowering class sizes.
"The promise is going to save Kalamazoo," Start said. "Many urban districts are in a downward spiral. If you lose students, you lose funding. This is changing the spiral to an upward spiral."
The promise rewards longevity in the district, so families who want to take advantage of it -- and get tuition paid in full -- will have to move within its boundaries and enroll their children by kindergarten.
As he talked about the program, Start could barely contain his excitement.
"I feel like I've had two careers: One was before the promise and one was after," he said.
But it's in the lives of individual students that the promise is making the biggest impact.
"I didn't know how I was going to pay for college," said Emily Midling, 17, a Loy Norrix High School senior who graduates June 8. "This just means so much to me. I just see it like changing my life."
Danielle Betke, an 18-year-old senior at Phoenix High, remembers being skeptical at first when she heard about the promise. It took weeks before the reality sunk in. No longer was community college her only option. Now, she's planning to attend WMU.
"It was crazy. My mom cried."
The donors "don't know what kind of impact they're having on KPS students. They are changing KPS students' lives forever," Danielle said.
Though Danielle doesn't know who the donors are, this is clear: "They must have a lot of faith in KPS students. Loy Norrix and Central don't have the best MEAP scores or send a lot of students to Harvard. They figure maybe this can make us more of what we want to be."
Families first, then businesses
The city itself may undergo a transformation, too.
"We've just been a city people move away from," said David Harris, 18, a senior at Loy Norrix High School. He's enrolled at WMU, after initially believing the most he'd be able to afford was a community college.
The promise, David said, will help the city grow and encourage people to stay.
Bob Jorth, executive assistant for the Kalamazoo Promise, the fund's sole employee, agrees that there's been a change.
"There's more community pride," he said. "The community understands this is an extraordinary gift and that the whole community needs to step forward and show that they appreciate it and they're going to utilize it in a way that honors the scope."
While there hasn't yet been a rash of people buying homes within the district's boundaries, it's only a matter of time, said Bob Rateike, a real estate agent with ERA Network Real Estate in Kalamazoo.
"Long-term, the Kalamazoo Promise is going to be a real benefit to the area and to the real estate market. If the schools improve their reputation, it will have a positive impact," Rateike said.
McKinney said there already are groups of people working to determine "how we can best leverage the Kalamazoo Promise to really help the whole area's economic and community development."
The city itself sure needs it.
In the 1990s, it lost a General Motors plant. Gone are several paper mills that helped fuel the economy.
"People have been leaving the core city, moving to the suburbs," McKinney said, citing the quality of the school district, high taxes and fear of crime. "What the promise has done for us is take one of those off the table. It's up to us to deal with the other two."
She expects the promise will eventually bring in more businesses and stabilize the neighborhoods.
"We're going to see families move first, and then businesses," McKinney said.
'Everyone should go to college'
In the office at Phoenix High School, a large clipboard containing dozens of applications for the Kalamazoo Promise is displayed prominently on a rack.
The school serves struggling students, and of the 48 seniors who are graduating, 10 already have earned the scholarship. Principal Von Washington Jr. expects more to be accepted.
University officials say that even though the promise is a guarantee of funding, students still have to meet admissions standards.
"They might try harder now because they know they can get to college," said Chris Crook, 17, a Phoenix graduating senior.
Senior Elizabeth Lauer used to ride by big office buildings and dream of one day becoming a chief executive officer. But it wasn't something she ever thought would happen.
Until now.
"Everyone should go to college, so we're not depending on welfare and food stamps," Elizabeth said. "With college, you're pretty much guaranteed a career. ...You just have to want it."
Contact LORI HIGGINS at 248-351-3694 or
higgins@freepress.com.
Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.
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Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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