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      The Kalamazoo Promise, after two amazing years
      Monday, November 12, 2007 
      Two years ago, the way Kalamazoo perceived itself changed abruptly. 
      Before Nov. 10, 2005, Kalamazoo was a city that was slowly losing 
      population, had difficulty retaining business and was watching jobs slip 
      away and housing stock decline. 
      But on that date it was announced that graduates of Kalamazoo Public 
      Schools would be eligible to have their college tuition covered, if they 
      enrolled in a public college or university in Michigan. 
      And suddenly the possibilities seemed endless. Fewer students would drop 
      out, more would graduate. Middle-class families that had avoided Kalamazoo 
      Public Schools would now flock to the district. The housing market would 
      get a big boost. Employers in cutting-edge businesses seeking 
      hard-to-recruit employees would flood into the region. 
      The Kalamazoo Promise, the brainchild and gift of anonymous donors, hasn't 
      transformed the Kalamazoo area overnight. But it is transforming the way 
      people think. 
      It is spurring people to find new ways of educating young people, 
      especially hard-to-reach at-risk students, and has given the entire 
      community a sense of hope for the future. 
      In addition, it has produced some astounding statistics in a very short 
      time. 
      Enrollment has increased by 11 percent in the last two years, after years 
      of decline, and the loss of white students to suburban school districts 
      appears to have stopped. 
      The number of African-American students graduating has increased by 43 
      percent. 
      The number of enrollments in high school advanced placement classes has 
      increased 27 percent between the 2006-07 and 2007-08 academic years. 
      Yet there are still plenty of problems that will require substantial time 
      and effort to change. 
      Discipline is still very much an issue in the school district, as 
      neighborhood disputes spill over into school buildings and students with 
      poor conflict-resolution skills disrupt learning for everyone. 
      It would be foolish to think that the promise of free college tuition 
      could transform the toughest of at-risk students into models of good 
      behavior. Even so, the achievement gap between black and white students 
      continues to be a frustrating reality, one that will certainly take more 
      than free college tuition to resolve. 
      It will also take the entire community -- parents, schools, churches, 
      volunteers -- to find a way to close that gap. 
      The nation's educators have spent the last two years watching Kalamazoo 
      Public Schools to see how this magnificent Kalamazoo Promise changes the 
      community. 
      It will be years before we know the answer. 
      In the meantime, it will be quite a journey. 
      It already has been. 



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