Promises, promises......

In a move that shows that lawmakers should NEVER put the word "promise" in any sort of spending initiative, the Senate committee on higher education Tuesday approved a 2009-10 budget that eliminated the Michigan Promise Grant program, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The program, a linchpin of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's education efforts, provides up to a $4,000 scholarship for college students who score well on state exams and complete two years of postsecondary work, and it has helped thousands of Michigan teen-agers attend college. Altogether, the Senate committee cut nearly $143 million from state financial aid to college students.

Senate Republicans say the proposed cuts merely reflect the new fiscal reality in Michigan, which faces a $1.8 billion shortfall for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Senate Democrats say they hope much of the cuts can be restored in the full Senate or in negotiations with the House.

If the scholarship program is finally axed, no one can blame Michigan's young people for looking askance at any future "promises."

Comments

[JRS]

MSU once had their own tuition "promise" of keeping
it below the rate of inflation
and even had it in a
a framed document hanging on a
wall in the Union Bldg. After
the promise was done away
with the embarassing framed document was quietly removed.

[MCP-001]

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once observed, "The problem with socialism is that you run out of other people's money."

Gov. Granholm is learning this lession right about now...