GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — In a pivotal State of the State address for Governor Gretchen Whitmer Wednesday night, she pushed for a number of different policy priorities and proposals heading into a key election year in Michigan.
One such proposal: a push to make community colleges in the state tuition-free for all qualifying high school graduates.
The proposal does, however, come with a few requirements.
According to reporting from the Associated Press, in order to qualify, a high school graduate must have lived in Michigan for at least a year and would be required to obtain an associate's degree within three years.
It would be an expansion of the state's pre-existing Michigan Reconnect Program, which already provides tuition-free community college for certain students.
It's a program heralded by the president of Grand Rapids Community College, Dr. Charles Lepper.
"We've seen the success of the Michigan reconnect program, which is a smaller version of this," Lepper said. "And we have seen our enrollments grow up, go up at GRCC over 3% last semester, almost 4% this semester."
While the threshold for that program is usually 25, lawmakers temporarily lowered that age to 21 until later this year. Whitmer's proposal would seemingly do away with this age requirement altogether.
Lepper said he views the potential expansion of that program as a positive step.
"I think it's an exciting opportunity for the state of Michigan and really helps the state sustain economic growth," Lepper said.
"This helps remove that barrier to the access piece, but also helps students complete, because they don't have to worry about the additional burden of paying college tuition while also paying for rent and cars and childcare and utilities and food, which all have gone up significantly in the past few years," Lepper said.
Some state Republicans, however, viewed last night's speech as having featured proposals for inflated state spending and, as a whole, fell short.
"She seems to be loading up on these promises, and then leaving the bill to the next legislature and the next governor, whoever funds it," Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) said following the governor's speech.
With an evenly divided state House - 54 Democrats to 54 Republicans with 2 open seats that won't be filled until after special elections in April - any of Whitmer's proposals she hopes to get through in the first few months of a critical year in Michigan politics will need bipartisan support in order to succeed.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Watch 13 ON YOUR SIDE for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple TV and on your phone.