Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is planning to urge lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide free community college tuition for all high school graduates.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer plans to urge state lawmakers to pass legislation that would provide free community college tuition for all high school graduates during her sixth State of the State speech on Wednesday.

Whitmer also prioritized community college access in her annual address last year. State lawmakers responded by temporarily lowering the minimum age for free tuition from 25 to 21 years old. The Democratic governor now wants to expand the program by removing all age requirements for free community college, according to details of her plan provided to The Associated Press by Whitmer’s office.

Whitmer’s administration created the Michigan Reconnect program in 2021, aiming to increase the percentage of the state’s workforce with a postsecondary degree or training from 50.5% to 60% by 2030. It made Michigan residents 25 years and older eligible for free community college tuition.

  • @people_are_cute
    -15•11 months ago

    Good idea, hope this does not deteriorate the quality of education. Corruption gets very rampant in public education when there isn’t constant and vigilant oversight.

      • @Jyek@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        -3•11 months ago

        The same reason poor highschool kids are often part of the school to prison pipeline. Corruption in poor students’ education leads to intentionally poor education which leads them to struggle as adults to meet the requirements of jobs that a student who got a scholarship to a “good” school will. I think this is a good idea but it’s not enough to make community college free. Higher education in general needs to come down drastically in price and the difference in cost between schools needs to come down as well. There is already judgment in adulthood about which school you went to. Now imagine what that judgement will be like when they find out you went to the free kind of community college.

        • @pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafeEnglish
          2•11 months ago

          So your argument is that poor kids shouldn’t get free college upon graduation because they are inherently stupid and thus needed standards lowered to get them to graduate high school in the first place, and this will carry on into the future. Because they are inherently dumber and less capable simply by virtue of being poor.

          You are clearly one of those dumb people.