Detroit’s college aid program falls short, but hopes remain – By Kim Kozlowski (The Detroit News) / Mar 18 2021
Detroit — After graduating from Communication and Media Arts High School, Johnathan Land realized he had an opportunity that could change his life.
Not only would he receive free tuition for a two-year degree at Oakland Community College, but the Detroit Promise Path program would pay him a $50 monthly stipend and provide a coach to guide him toward graduation as part of a new plan available to the city’s students.
“No one around here is going to college,” said Land, 22. “It’s so easy to get stuck in a job for 20, 30 years that you hate. That was my whole philosophy for going to college to become a little more educated … and not get stuck.”
“I know how easy it is to get stuck working in a dead-end job and not getting paid very much and breaking your back every day, especially when you know there are other options out there. That was my whole reason for going to college, especially being a person of color.”
Johnathan Land, former Detroit Promise Path student
Today he’s a janitor at Dearborn Heights Public Schools. He left OCC after three years, just a few credits short of the associate degree he still hopes to earn.
PHOTO BY MAX ORTIZ, THE DETROIT NEWS
The first detailed report on the success of the program, to be released Thursday, shows that Land’s story is more the norm than the exception. Only 7.2% of the students in the Promise Path earned certificates or a degree within three years, compared to 6.8% of those who received tuition alone. Fewer than 100 of the more than 1,000 students in the report’s study earned a degree or certificate within three years.
