The Michigan Reconnect program is intended to assist adults who want to attend community college but can't afford the tuition. | stock photo
The Michigan Reconnect program is intended to assist adults who want to attend community college but can't afford the tuition. | stock photo
The word is out: Michigan is offering free tuition at community colleges -- but there are some fine-print details that could be dashing the hopes of some of the state’s residents who have the most to gain from a degree.
To be eligible for the Michigan Reconnect program, applicants must be 25 or older, have lived in the state for at least a year, have a high school diploma or equivalent, and not have completed any previous associate’s or bachelor’s degrees, according to Michigan.gov.
For those who meet the requirements, the program will cover in-district tuition, mandatory fees and contact hours, according to the program's website.
But about 20% of the state’s population doesn’t live in a community college district, meaning those residents would be charged the higher, out-of-district rate to go to any community college, according to Bridge Michigan. And that doesn’t even consider the student choice element for those who live in a community college district but would prefer the programming offered by a community college in a neighboring district.
Michigan’s community colleges are primarily supported through community college districts, which benefit from local property taxes within that district. The community colleges then charge tuition at two different rates, with the rate offered to students who live outside the relevant community college district being much higher than the rate charged to those from within the district, often twice as much.
Out of Michigan’s 83 counties, 50 have no community college district, according to Bridge Michigan. The mostly rural counties without community college districts are also among the state's counties that have the highest rates of poverty and the fewest residents with a college degree.
Alyssa Merton, a coordinator of the Local College Access Network in Oceana County, said the situation is frustrating for people living in an area of the state with no community college districts. Merton told Bridge Michigan she has already had difficult conversations with potential students who had only heard that the state would now cover tuition, without being aware of the fine print.
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