Pensacola’s Promise Committee meets tomorrow
The committee recently established by the Pensacola City Council to study Councilwoman Maren DeWeese’s “Pensacola’s Promise” proposal will hold its inaugural meeting tomorrow afternoon.
The meeting will be held beginning at 4:00 PM in the Whibbs Conference Room, first floor, City Hall.
Pensacola’s Promise — modelled after similar programs in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and elsewhere — would be a place-based scholarship program, providing the children of City of Pensacola residents with college education. In Kalamazoo, the program has increased property values and curbed middle-class flight to suburbs.
The committee will meet weekly for about 90 days to develop a detailed proposal to submit to the City Council.
Subscribe to our feed
Get updates via email
Follow us on Twitter
The similar programs I’ve seen are funded by the private sector, not my tax dollars. I don’t have any children yet I gladly pay taxes to the school district & even volunteer my time at a local school. Enough is enough.
The school board should get out of collecting condemned buildings, sell them, quit blighting neighborhoods and the city, and use the money to improve our pathetic school system.
Their management of taxpayer purchased buildings is an outrage. How many condemned buildings has the school board collected?
We continue to try to bribe people to come here instead of making the area a place that attracts.
It’s not working.
Public school students in Kalamazoo, Michigan are getting the opportunity of a lifetime. In an unprecedented act of civil philanthropy, a group of undisclosed benefactors has made it possible for nearly all students of Kalamazoo’s public school system to attend local higher education institutions.
The program is called the Kalamazoo Promise and here’s how it works. For at least the next 13 years, students graduating from Kalamazoo’s public school system will be offered scholarships to local colleges and universities. The longer the student was in the public school system, the greater the scholarship. Those who started at the kindergarten level will get a free ride!
The scholarships will cover between 65-100% of tuition and fees, starting with the class of 2006. Qualifying students will have entered the public school system no later than the ninth grade.
The program is geared around the idea of attracting businesses and families to Kalamazoo. The community expects tremendous job creation and higher property values. Kalamazoo is a city in transition, moving from a manufacturing past to a high-tech future. The city’s largest current employer is pharmaceutical company Pfizer, followed by Western Michigan University.
With a population estimated at roughly 77,000, Kalamazoo is mostly middle-class and racially diverse.
Does Pensacola have a group of benefactors to pay for this?
Mike — That’s my point. In Kalamazoo it’s entirely privately funded. And Pensacola is hardly mostly middle-class.