The promise of free community college was one of the headline items in Michigan’s latest budget. Governor Gretchen Whitmer touted the new offering, dubbed the “Community College Guarantee,” as a way of eliminating “barriers to economic prosperity” and helping “more families ‘make it’ in Michigan.” Leaders at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) are excited about the shift, too, viewing it as a potential gamechanger – not just for their institution, but for the northern Michigan workforce and the regional economy as a whole. But there are also challenges for NMC, particularly with communicating who exactly can access the program's benefits. As students across the region head back to school, The Ticker takes a closer look at the Community College Guarantee and its local implications.

The Community College Guarantee exists under the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, a program that has already been offering thousands of dollars per year to high school graduates who choose to pursue college in state. Michigan’s latest education budget expands the program so that “students from the class of 2023 and beyond may be eligible” to have most of their community college expenses covered, including in-district tuition, contact hours, and mandatory fees.

The program is a big deal – probably worth an average of $4,500 per year for eligible full-time students, according to Todd Neibauer, NMC’s VP for student services and technologies. However, NMC President Nick Nissley also tells The Ticker that discourse around the Community College Guarantee has been somewhat confusing, setting up student expectations that don’t always match what the program is actually offering.

“Lansing has done a really good job telling the story of free community college, but what this offers is a tuition-free pathway,” Nissley says. “And I don't mean to diminish it; we're deeply appreciative of having a tuition-free pathway. But it isn't free community college, because there’s a range of other expenses outside of tuition. There’s housing, which is extraordinarily expensive in a place like Traverse City. You’ve got books; you’ve got food; you might have child care needs. There are all those other expenses, and any of them could be a real barrier for a student coming to community college – even if they are getting free tuition.”

The other wrinkle, Neibauer notes, is that the Community College Guarantee only covers in-district tuition rates. For NMC, that means only students living in Grand Traverse County will actually be able to access tuition-free community college. Students outside of the district, such as those residing in neighboring counties like Antrim, Benzie, Kalkaska, or Leelanau, would only have part of their tuition bill covered.

“There is kind of a rural divide, because the state looks at a program like this and says, ‘OK, 80 percent of the students in the state live in a community college district,’” Neibauer says. “But in northern Michigan, that's not the case. At NMC, only about half of our students live in Grand Traverse County. So, as we’re telling students about the Community College Guarantee, we have to make sure that everybody understands that when it says ‘free,’ it actually depends on where they live. Out-of-district students can still benefit from the program, but only up to what their bill would be if they were in district. It would still leave them with a portion of tuition and fees that they’re responsible for.”

Up until last week, NMC was pushing a ballot proposal that could have added Benzie County as part of the college’s district. While trustees voted to withdraw that proposal due to issues with the ballot language, Nissley sees the Community College Guarantee as a good reason for NMC to keep pushing for district expansions in the future.

“When we started planning the Benzie County annexation, it would have taken Benzie residents from $269 [tuition rate per contact hour at NMC] to $126,” Nissley says. “With the Community College Guarantee, the value proposition is now going from a $269 out-of-district fee to free. It’s a big incentive, and we talked to a lot of people in Benzie County who, when they heard that, would shake their head and say, ‘Wow, that’s a gamechanger.’”

Even without the annexation, Neibauer and Nissley each see the Community College Guarantee paying big dividends going forward, both for NMC and for the local community. Neibauer has already noticed an uptick in enrollment since the program was announced, though he says the college won’t have its final fall 2024 numbers for a few weeks yet. Nissley, meanwhile, sees benefits in the broader societal perks of accessible education.

“One of the most profound impacts of a program like this is on a graduate’s earnings,” Nissley says. “State of Michigan data tells us that, if you have a high school diploma, in the year after earning that diploma, you're going to earn, on average, about $20,000 per year. But if you have an associate's degree that goes to about $43,000 per year. And if you multiply that $23,000 difference over a working lifetime, you're looking at over half-a-million dollars. So, by making that college degree more accessible, this program could have a massive impact on an individual in terms of their spending power, the type of life they can lead, the sort of home they can live in, the support they can give their family, the things they can do and buy and purchase…that's a profound impact, and it probably reduces the amount of safety nets needed elsewhere.”

More information about the Community College Guarantee, including eligibility details, can be found on the NMC website.