New law helps disadvantaged Michigan students with out-of-pocket expenses
Thirteen Michigan Promise Zones can now use scholarship funding to pay for a college student’s room and board, transportation, day care and more.

Alexsandra Aguilar-Delgado always knew she wanted to go to college. As a student at City High Middle School in Grand Rapids, she was introduced to the Promise Zone scholarship program by her counselor.
She said that if she hadn’t learned about the Promise Zone scholarship, she would have struggled to find scholarships and grants to pay her tuition at Grand Rapids Community College. She began attending GRCC as a freshman studying plastics engineering this fall.
“I didn’t have to worry about signing up for anything,” said Aguilar-Delgado, 18. “I was already at ease.”
Just a few short months into the school year, however, she said she has racked up additional costs for parking and food while attending class on campus.
Extra out-of-pocket expenses like these could prevent some college students from continuing their education, which is why Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently signed legislation to update the 2009 Michigan Promise Zone Authority Act. Instead of only paying for tuition, as it had previously, the scholarship can now be used to cover such expenses as housing, transportation and child care.
Michigan Promise Zone scholarships are awarded to students who live in one of 13 economically disadvantaged communities, in which the percentage of children in families living at or below the poverty line is above the state average, and graduate from a high school within that community.
Promise Zone scholarships are different from traditional scholarships that are based strictly on a student’s academic merit or on financial need, like the Pell Grant.
Ashlee Mishler, the executive director of the Grand Rapids Promise Zone, said the scholarship is significant because it gives all students from the area the opportunity to attend college instead of only a select few. She added that the new law means that the scholarship can be adapted to fit different challenges students may be presented with when obtaining their education.
“I’m very excited for the opportunity that this provides the Grand Rapids Promise Zone to really support students in as many ways as possible,” Mishler said.
In 2005, Kalamazoo became the site of the first “place-based” scholarship in the nation when a group of donors announced they would pay the tuition of any Kalamazoo Public School student attending a Michigan college or university.
Four years later, then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed the Michigan Promise Zone Authority Act into law. It allows local communities to create 11-member Promise Zone Authority Boards that can utilize the state education tax to fund, at minimum, an associate’s degree for students who reside within the zone. In the first two years after a Michigan Promise Zone’s creation, and before it can receive tax dollars, the authority board must seek out donations to fund the scholarship.
The law first allowed up to 10 Promise Zones, and the state later increased the limit to 15 in 2017. Today, Michigan has 13 Promise Zones.
The Promise Zone scholarship fills in the gaps to pay for tuition, course fees and books that aren’t covered by federal student aid or other awards, so exact scholarship amounts vary based on a student’s specific needs. Each Promise Zone also has its own stipulations about which postsecondary institutions the scholarship can be used at. For example, the Grand Rapids Promise Zone scholarship is only for students attending Grand Rapids Community College, while the Pontiac Promise Zone scholarship can be used for any state-accredited public institution.
Some Pontiac students go as far as Michigan Technological University in the Upper Peninsula to attend school, said Coco Moulder, a former Pontiac School District teacher and the executive director of the Pontiac Promise Zone. Giving students the ability to travel to school and live on campus is part of the beauty of the scholarship program and why the new law is so important, she said.
“Tuition is not the most expensive part of college; that’s actually room and board, like being able to eat and sleep. And these young people now have the ability to have us help them so that they are not couch surfing and having to quit because they don’t have the money to pay for their room and board,” Moulder said.
Since the September bill signing, some Promise Zone authority boards have been working to redesign their scholarship development plans to include the additional expenses.
Justin Sheehan, the executive director of the Lansing Promise Zone, said it’s their goal to implement the changes within the next year.
“We really look forward to doing the math, crunching the numbers, and beginning to support in any way we can,” Sheehan said.
Lansing’s was one of the first Michigan Promise Zones established under the 2009 law. Sheehan estimates that more than 2,000 students have attended a postsecondary program through the Lansing Promise Zone and over 800 students have graduated. Many of the graduates have returned to live and work in the local community, he said.
“We got scholars running restaurants and businesses. We got scholars who have completed law school and are now running organizations,” Sheehan said.
Whitmer signed a second bill as part of the package that requires Promise Zone board members to live within or near the Promise Zone and allows funding to be used for activities that improve student success. The bill is designed to increase the number of scholarship recipients that complete their programs and join the workforce after graduation by ensuring they have the necessary support.
For Aguilar-Delgado, a first-generation college student, she believes receiving one-on-one academic help in college will benefit her the most so she can finish her education and give back to her parents.
“They’ve done so much for me that I feel like I should also give back in any way that I can. And my way right now is by working hard in my academics,” Aguilar-Delgado said.