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Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

nytimes.com

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Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#111

Post by bkmartin »

JPKab wrote: post #105
alttag wrote: post #7

Wow. That's neat. I once had a conversation with a state legislator where he argued it wasn't the responsibility of government to provide grant and loan opportunities for higher education, and that by doing so, the federal government was disincentivizing saving and investing. Instead, he argued universities should be more market driven (which I will concede might introduce more price competition in the face of rapidl…

As a guy who grew up in an impoverished, rural family and received Pell grants and federal loans for my college costs, can someone explain to me why articles like this talk about students not being able to go to college without the donation? Has something changed since 1999 when I, with zero money or savings in my family, was able to go to college on government loans/grants based on the fact that I got in due to good…

Your story is very similar to mine. I too was a poor farmers child growing up. But thanks to Pell Grants, Federal Student Loans, and my parents vision for me, I was able to go to college. My parents greatest vision for me was that I would be able to do better than them. That was the goal that was drilled into me, that I could do better. That I had a blank slate and could make myself whatever I wanted. And they made sure I was keeping up with my grades and not going out and getting in trouble. I believe its very true that a bad or ignorant home life is probably one of the greatest disadvantages a child can have when it comes to education. I don't have the studies or facts handy right now, but from what I've read and seen myself, English as a second language and disengaged parents are far more responsible for poor test scores and student failures than the teachers are. Of course there are bad teachers, just like any other profession, but I would guess that the number of incompetent and bad teachers is far lower than test scores would suggest.

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#112

Post by sukuriant »

anigbrowl wrote: post #58
sukuriant wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't stop bureaucracy from changing that decision or for the people that are donating to be sent to jail/etc before they can finish their promises.

Put the bong down, and reread this tomorrow.It may not have occurred to you, but the norm in phalinthropy is to establish legal structures at the outset which prevent those sorts of outcomes. You appear to think the money has either been handed over as a lump sum or is being delivered on an ad-hoc basis. Neither is likely.

Ah, I see what you were saying. The "criminal records" there is in reference to the children, not those providing the money. I was concerned about the people providing the money.

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#113

Post by noahc »

SatvikBeri wrote: post #109
JPKab wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a guy who grew up in an impoverished, rural family and received Pell grants and federal loans for my college costs, can someone explain to me why articles like this talk about students not being able to go to college without the donation? Has something changed since 1999 when I, with zero money or savings in my family, was able to go to college on government loans/grants based on the fact that I got in due to good…

Ramit Sethi argues that the belief that you can't go to college due to a lack of money is largely misplaced, at least in the USA. I'm sure there are edge cases where it really is impossible to get funding, but I know several people who went to very expensive schools and got it nearly all paid through various scholarships. NB: most of these scholarships were not granted by the college itself, but by an outside agency,…

I wish someone would have told me about all this starting my freshman year of high school. Being from a poor rural family, I had no idea that these opportunities existed and the first thing I looked at was price of school over anything else. So, I only applied to one school which to be honest seemed unreasonably expensive at the time.

I think a huge part of the problem is not so much the resources, but the mentality that surrounds the poor. Having grown up poor, I was focused on being cheap, not on value. Of course, no one every said, "Hey, with your 3.3 GPA maybe you should apply somewhere else".

I also only took the ACT once after having been away at summer camp and only getting 3-4 hours of sleep each night for the past week, and no idea until later that people retook it.

The other aspect, is that in small rural towns it has been my experience, that the guidance counselors who do the college admissions have no idea what to do with a student who doesn't want to go to the traditional schools, which in my case were the 3 nearest community colleges, the University of Nebraska, University of Iowa, or Iowa State.

Ramit, would tell you that just because the information is out there, that isn't enough. In regard to this, it is absolutely true.

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#114

Post by fjorder »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #95
beloch wrote: post #62

I'd say the kids of Kalamazoo could use a break given the kind of stuff they have to deal with. http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/letters/Nose+Hill+Park+... Note: The above Kalamazoo sheriff is probably not quite as paranoid as the story suggests since Kalamzoo has a murder rate almost 7 times higher than Calgary despite being roughtly 1/14'th the size. If Kalamazoo is that dangerous, it's natural to assume a much…

Isn't murder rate per capita? I fail to see how size matters. Also this says the murder rate is half the Michigan average: http://m.countyhealthrankings.org/node/1404/15 The sheriff is apparently not very good at being off-duty, oh well.

I think a popular misconception is that small-towns are safer than big cities.

  Calgary
  -------
  2011 Population: 1,096,833
  2011 homicides: 10 
  Rate: 0.91 per 100,000 people

  Kalamazoo
  ---------
  2011 Population:  74,262
  2011 Homicides: 5
  Rate: 6.73 per 100,000
So the homicide rate in Kalamazoo is 7.4 times higher. So much for small-town peace and quiet!

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#115

Post by AutoCorrect »

JPKab wrote: post #105
alttag wrote: post #7

Wow. That's neat. I once had a conversation with a state legislator where he argued it wasn't the responsibility of government to provide grant and loan opportunities for higher education, and that by doing so, the federal government was disincentivizing saving and investing. Instead, he argued universities should be more market driven (which I will concede might introduce more price competition in the face of rapidl…

As a guy who grew up in an impoverished, rural family and received Pell grants and federal loans for my college costs, can someone explain to me why articles like this talk about students not being able to go to college without the donation? Has something changed since 1999 when I, with zero money or savings in my family, was able to go to college on government loans/grants based on the fact that I got in due to good…

Because the people that wrote the article believed that children were helpless. Intrinsically motivated people will almost always find a way to overcome obstacles. Those extrinsically motivated need help to overcome obstacles. Government school promotes extrinsic motivation (go to school, get a good job. Get that A on that test!).

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#116

Post by mikeyouse »

rmason wrote: post #79

FYI Kalamazoo has three venture capital firms whereas to my knowledge Grand Rapids and Lansing have none. In fact until a few years ago there weren't any VC's in the Detroit city limits.

This is untrue.

I don't know about Lansing, but there is a ton of angel / venture activity in Grand Rapids. There is now an engineering school (http://www.gvsu.edu/engineering/), a medical school (http://news.msu.edu/story/8262/), a multi-billion dollar biotech research facility -- which grants PhDs (http://vai.org/) all in downtown GR.

VCs:

http://www.bridgestreetcapital.com | http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2011/0... | http://www.maf-1.com/

Angels:

http://www.grandangels.com/

Coworking Spaces:

http://workthefactory.com/ | http://www.workcottage.com/

Incubators:

http://www.wmsti.org/about.htm | http://www.accelmich.org/default.aspx | http://www.gvsu.edu/marec/

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#117

Post by Dylan16807 »

gvb wrote: post #103
Dylan16807 wrote: post #57

With every added student, the school district gets another $7,250 from the state. That's per year, right? That's very close to the $4,200/semester number. So the college payments are almost equivalent to extending education from K12 to K16. That means that this could be done, even without donations, across the country.

There is a substantial difference: the $7,250 from the state doesn't come out of thin air, it comes out of the pockets of the Michigan taxpayers. The $8,400 per year for college comes out of the "Kalamazoo Promise" donation, not out of taxpayers' pockets. I am not aware of any state that has been able to convince taxpayers to fund the additional four years[1]. The "Kalamazoo Promise" sidesteps that issue via private…

Well of course it's different. I prefer the state paying because it actually scales to all students in the country. So your reminder that the state is already paying part of the bill makes this sound even better; they would only have to pay a small fraction more to provide full educational coverage!

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#118

Post by MikeCapone »

dfriedmn wrote: post #40
MikeCapone wrote: post #39

If I had to guess at a glance, I'd say maybe Chuck Feeney: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Feeney#Education

Oh come on, we know it's Derek Jeter. Jeter IS kalamazoo.

You might be right, I was just guessing on what I knew, and I don't know Derek Jeter.

Re: Anonymous Donor Pays for College of Every Student in Kalamazoo

#120

Post by eli_gottlieb »

cobrausn wrote: post #107
Vivtek wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More market-driven? It's only since people started arguing that colleges should be run like businesses that tuition has exploded. There are things that shouldn't be market-driven. Look at Germany for an example - no vouchers needed to go to college there because the government simply pays for everybody (even foreigners). And the economy is doing fine.

Germany is a wonderful cherry-picked example, but it is hardly the only country in Europe to pay for higher education - many of the others aren't in such great financial shape. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1976724,00.htm... I would love to see higher education made accessible to everyone with the ability to do so, and would love to see college cost a lot less, even if it is too late for me (6 figures…

So what about Canada? France? Israel? Japan?
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