Students rally for Mich. Promise

About 100 students from Michigan universities gathered at the state Capitol Tuesday afternoon to hand deliver about 2,500 signatures petitioning state legislators to keep the Michigan Promise Scholarship.

The Michigan Promise Scholarship awards up to $4,000 to students who are attending an in-state college or university, and has been given to about 96,000 high school graduates based on their scores on the Michigan Merit Exam.

The scholarship’s fate is under deliberation after the state Senate unveiled a budget proposal in June to eliminate the program to help balance the state’s budget. The deadline for setting the state budget is Oct. 1.

“We felt we needed to form a rally and protest so legislators understand that Michigan’s students do care about their education,” said Mitchell Rivard, president of MSU College Democrats and social relations and policy junior, who organized the event.

State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Lansing, spoke at the rally about how this scholarship affects too many students to be a part of Michigan’s upcoming budget cut.

“Whether you’re wearing Spartan green or Wolverine blue, or you go to any other of the wonderful 15 universities Michigan has to offer, a key to turning the economy around is great jobs, and you’ve got to have a great education to land those great jobs, which is why the Promise is important,” she said.

Many MSU students cheered and listened in support as some of the state’s House of Representatives and Senate members spoke about their loyalty to the college students of Michigan.

“I receive the scholarship every year, and most of my friends do, as well,” said Kaitlin Aprill, vice president of MSU College Democrats and social relations and policy sophomore. “It just really hurts to see that we are depending on this money, and some kids will have to scrape together $2,000 to go to school this year and if they don’t, then they won’t continue going to school because they were promised this money.”

Although the final budget decision has not been made, Republicans are not optimistic about the future of the Michigan Promise Scholarship, said Matt Marsden, spokesman for state Sen. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.

“I think that if the state had the funding to do it, then they would do it,” Marsden said. “However, we can’t promise to pay money we don’t have, so I guess the question would be, ‘Where would the funding come from and … where do they expect us to get funding from a budget that needs to be cut for the success and vitality of the Michigan economy that cannot sustain itself anymore?’”

After the rally, several legislators discussed the crowd’s response to their speeches.

“I think the rally went very well, I think the crowd got into it,” said state Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing. “People have to be committed to saving these Promise grants — the important thing is that there are boxes of petitions, and showing up here and showing up to the legislators’ offices is the right thing to do.”