LANSING – Michigan high school students can now plan on receiving a state scholarship for going to college under the “Michigan Promise” scholarship program that Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed into law on Thursday.
Granholm signed SB 1335 and HB 6302 at a ceremony in E.A. Johnson High School in Mt. Morris.
The $4,000 scholarship the program represents “makes earning a college degree or technical certificate a real possibility,” Granholm told students at the high school during the signing ceremony.
Currently the state’s Merit Scholarship awards $2,500 scholarships to students who score well on the ACT test. Under the new program, any students completes two years of college is eligible for the $4,000 scholarship.
Students who do score well on the ACT will be eligible to receive $1,000 each during their freshman and sophomore years in college and the balance after finishing those two years. Students who do not score well on the ACT will receive $4,000 after completing their first two years in school so long as they maintain a 2.5 grade point average.
The scholarship will be funded through the state’s tobacco settlement, but by the end of the decade it is expected some general funds will be needed to help finance the program.
Granholm has called the scholarship important to the goal of doubling the number of college graduates in Michigan.
House Speaker Craig DeRoche (R-Novi) also issued a statement, saying the scholarship “the first step on a road to provide permanent state funding for students in college.”
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