80 Time July 11–18, 2016

When Doreisha reeD Wasin elementary school, shethought college was freefor everyone. Her teachersspoke about it like it was anextension of high school, asif she had no other optionbut to attend. And when theteachers talked, they keptbringing up “the Promise.”

“Until middle school, Ithought everybody had it,”says Reed, now 18 and arecent Kalamazoo CentralHigh School graduateheaded to Western MichiganUniversity. “But that’s whenit hit me. Other kids have topay for college.”

Kalamazoo, Mich., isdifferent not just becauseits name sounds funny. Thecity that sells T-shirts thatread, yes, There reallyis a kalamazoo! was oncebest known as the subject ofGlenn Miller’s “(I’ve Got aGal in) Kalamazoo” and lateras the hometown of Yankeeslegend Derek Jeter. But inthe past decade, it’s acquiredanother renown: incubator ofone of the most generous andtransformative philanthropicgifts in the country.

Since 2006, more than5,000 students have beeneligible for the KalamazooPromise, an $80 millioninvestment from a groupof anonymous local donorsthat allows every citystudent to attend an in-statecollege tuition-free. Theinitiative is so striking, itspurred President Obamato give his first high school

commencement address atKalamazoo Central in 2010.

Visiting the city, it’s easyto see that the Promise hasbeen about culture as muchas tuition. Kindergartenteachers put college pennantsup in their classrooms.Elementary-school studentstalk about the differencesbetween Michigan andMichigan State. Real estateagents hype homes within theschool district. The name ofa local peregrine falcon seenaround the city? Promise.

The notion of makingpublic universities free hasbeen revived this electioncycle. But in many U.S.cities, it’s already happeningfrom the ground up. Morethan 50 communities havesome form of place-basedtuition-free scholarships,an idea that originated inKalamazoo after a decades-long slide in enrollmentbeginning in the 1980sled to tens of millions ofdollars in budget cuts. Then,Kalamazoo Public Schools(KPS) was known as a toughinner-city district that whitefamilies were abandoningfor nearby suburban schools.Like many of its Rust Beltneighbors, the city had oncebeen a manufacturing hub,the proud home to Gibsonguitars and Checker cabs, butjobs left as factories movedoverseas. The biggest hitcame when Pfizer acquiredthe Upjohn Co., a longtime

employer that created thedigestible pill, and shrank itslocal operations.

In the mid-2000s, agroup of wealthy donorsbegan talking about “abig initiative” to turn thecommunity around, andthe discussion always cameback to education, saysJanice Brown, Promise’sexecutive director emeritusand the only person in directcontact with the donors. By2005, they had decided tofund college tuition for all

BY JOSH SANBURN

144. OLGA VISO:One of the bestgreen spaces inthe Minneapolispark system isMinnehaha Park,best enjoyedby sharing crabcakes and abottle of wineoutside at SeaSalt, a seasonalrestaurantnestled near thepark’s trails andMinnehaha Falls.

Viso is executivedirector of theWalker Art Center

142. CHARLA-MAGNE THA GOD:The historic vibeof downtownCharleston,S.C., is theperfect backdropfor amazingrestaurants likePoogan’s Porch,Hyman’s Seafood,Fleet Landing andHigh Cotton—anda brownie sundaefrom Kaminsky’s.And make sureyou tip the kidsselling the flowersmade out ofsweetgrass.

South Carolinanative LenardMcKelvey, a.k.a.Charlamagne ThaGod, co-hosts TheBreakfast Clubradio show

143. MIKE VEECK:The LorraineMotel in Memphis,where MartinLuther King Jr. wasassassinated, ismy favorite placeto visit in theU.S. Now morethan ever, it’srelevant beyondbelief. There’s abittersweet joyunderneath thesadness, givenhow far we’vecome since Dr.King died but howmuch further wehave to go.

Veeck is partowner of fiveminor-leaguebaseball teamsacross the U.S.

145. The city wherehigh school grads go tocollege for free

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12,500 in 2016. The W.E.Upjohn Institute, a thinktank started by the founderof the pharmaceutical firm,estimates that enrollmentwould otherwise be closer to9,000. Though the Promisedoesn’t require collegegrads to return, it helpedstabilize the district, withthe population holdingsteady and far fewer whitefamilies leaving for suburbanschools. College enrollmentof Kalamazoo graduatesincreased from 60% beforethe Promise to 69%, whilethose obtaining degreeswithin six years after highschool rose from 36% to 48%.The Promise boosted thepercentage of low-incomestudents who received abachelor’s degree from 10%to 16%, and local students aremore likely to go to collegethan their peers in otherparts of the state. Kalamazoo,meanwhile, did not lose anyof its population during theGreat Recession, and thecurrent unemployment rate isbelow the Michigan average.

The Promise is not apanacea, however. Whilemore grads are going tocollege, minorities accountfor too many of the Promisestudents who do not finish,with black and Hispanicstudents graduating athalf the rate of whites.“The completion rates arestill horrible,” says BobJorth, Promise’s currentexecutive director. “But thedonors understand this is agenerational issue.”

Like elsewhere in the state,poverty rates have actually

increased in the city. About70% of KPS students are onfree or reduced lunch, one ofthe highest rates in Michigan.And the expectation thatall Kalamazoo high schoolgraduates will go on tocollege has highlighted otherproblems in the educationalsystem, like the lack of early-childhood literacy programs.

But the Promise has alsospurred surrounding schoolsto improve the quality oftheir facilities and teachers,and inspired dozens ofcommunities across theU.S.—including Pittsburgh;Peoria, Ill.; and Syracuse,N.Y.—to create Promise-like programs, 16 of them inMichigan alone.

Despite these successes,the Promise’s donors remainfiercely protective of theiranonymity—guessing theiridentities is a parlor game.Few with ties to the areacould afford such a gift,so most residents suspectthe Stryker family, whichowns the medical-devicemanufacturer Stryker Corp.,or its top executives. AStryker spokesperson saidthe firm is “not affiliated”with the Promise.

Change, of course, takestime. Schiedel, who as ahigh school junior hadn’trealized what the Promisemeant, gets it now. Whenshe was a student, the newsfrom her high school wasalmost always bad—fights,suspensions, drugs. But aftergraduating from MichiganState, she bought a home inKalamazoo and is gettinga master’s degree in socialwork at Western MichiganUniversity, in town. “Iwanted to come back tomy community to pay itforward,” she says. “With theadded bonus that my kids aregoing to get the Promise.” •

“P RO M I S E” C O L L E G EG R A D S F RO M T H EC L A S S O F 2 0 1 6

Kalamazoo graduates, a giftthey hoped would createeconomic ripples acrossthe region. When Brownannounced the Promise thatNovember, parents cried.Some thought it was a joke.

Britney Schiedel, ahigh school junior at thetime, remembers her grand-mother approaching her.“She said, ‘Your school ispaid for,’” Schiedel recalls.

“And I was like, ‘What areyou talking about?’” Shehadn’t really thought aboutcollege until then. “I madethe decision to go to collegethe next day,” she says.

Kalamazoo has sincebecome a de facto laboratoryfor testing the communalbenefits of a collegeeducation. After years ofdecline, local high schoolenrollment has increasedfrom 10,000 studentsbefore the Promise to

FROM TOP ROW TO BOT TOM, LEF T TO R IGHT: KELSEY L INDE, Z ACH R ICKL I , AL I RUSSO, T YLER MCCRARY, PAT T Y RODRIGUEZ, L ATRICE H. HENDRICKS, RA J BRUEGGEMANN, L AREB NADEEM, ELE X IS BUCHANAN,T YLER JACKSON, CHANTEL ROMERO, MARIA ASCENCIO DE L A CRUZ, ALE X RUHS, EMILY OL IVARES, CHELSE A OL IVARES, HUNTER LEE, MOHAMMAD AMIN I , DOMINIQUE JACKSON, SHANE DUGGAN, GABRIELLE ORBE