Only a few weeks after the launch of the Michigan Reconnect scholarship program, over 40,000 Michiganders have begun their path to further their education. 

It is the state’s largest effort in history to ensure Michiganders age 25 or older without a college degree have an opportunity to earn an associate degree or skills certificate. It will also help address the dual challenges of the state’s widening talent gap and aging workforce.

The program pays those who are eligible to attend their in-district community college and offers a significant tuition discount if they attend an out-of-district community college. 

To be eligible for Michigan Reconnect, residents must:

•    Be at least 25 years old when they apply
•    Have lived in Michigan for a year or more
•    Have a high school diploma
•    Have not completed an associate or bachelor’s degree

The program supports Michigan’s Sixty by 30 goal to ensure 60% of Michiganders have a degree or post-secondary credential by 2030. 

According to data from the Lumina Foundation, Michigan is making progress in increasing educational attainment but still falls behind when compared to the national average. Michigan’s attainment rate sits at 48.9% compared to the national average of 51.3%. 

The most recent data from 2018 shows that Michigan has improved the overall rate of attainment by 13.3% since 2008.

Michigan, like many states, faces significant gaps in educational attainment when the data is disaggregated by race and ethnicity. In Michigan, the attainment rate for African Americans is 25.8% compared to the national average 31.6%.

Efforts by the state like Michigan Reconnect and Futures for Frontliners, a state scholarship program for Michiganders without college degrees who worked in essential industries during the state COVID-19 shutdown in spring 2020, work to support opportunities for postsecondary education. 

Many in our CMF community have supported these efforts through various initiatives and programs. 

The Kresge Foundation continues to work to increase access to higher education through their Boosting Opportunities for Social and Economic Mobility for Families (BOOST).  

The initiative “aims to strengthen partnerships between community colleges and human services nonprofits that connect people who earn lower incomes in cities to critical human service supports and educational pathways that will help them climb the social and economic ladder.”

The Community Foundation of St. Clair County, which has worked deeply in supporting graduates who return to the community to work by paying off their student loans through the community foundation’s Come Home Award, is now looking to expand its talent attraction efforts.

The community foundation recently shared that they are expanding their efforts to “attract more remote workers, artists in residence, entrepreneurs and others who will grow the number of families, homeownership, quality of employment and the overall prosperity of St. Clair County.”

Want more?

Access Michigan education attainment data via The Lumina Foundation.

Learn more about the Community Foundation of St. Clair County’s talent attraction work.

Read more about Sixty by 30.