Mayor Jim Ardis delivered his “State of the City” address today (the transcript is available on the City of Peoria website), and he had a big announcement to make about the “Peoria Promise” initiative:
Last year, at this State of the City address, I asked our city to dream big dreams and consider a program called Peoria Promise. Based on a similar program in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and recently successfully emulated elsewhere, Peoria Promise would enable any student graduating from Peoria Public Schools to be eligible for a college scholarship. Today, I am excited to announce the first step in Peoria Promise – a guarantee that eligible high school graduates qualify for up to 100% tuition while working towards a degree or certificate at Illinois Central College.
We are very fortunate to have Illinois Central College in our community, and they have
been extraordinarily helpful to us on this project. I’ll touch on a few of the details, and
there will be more information available through ICC to all who are interested.
- Peoria Promise is offered to City of Peoria residents who graduate from one of the following high schools: Manual, Central, Woodruff, Richwoods, Dunlap, Limestone and Peoria Alternative. Tuition will be provided based on a sliding scale determined by how long the student attended Peoria Public schools. Those attending all 12 years receive 100% funding. This is based on the philosophy that those children and families who reside in the City the longest and attend the public schools the longest should reap the greatest benefit.
- Peoria Promise will begin funding the tuition scholarships with the high school graduating class of 2008.
- Applications will be made on-line at ICC’s website during January through March of each year.
- Students must have a minimum two point zero grade point average following each semester at ICC to maintain eligibility.
- In addition, Peoria Promise will pay tuition at other community colleges for students who choose programs not offered at ICC.
As Ardis said, this is a program inspired by the Kalamazoo Promise, on which I have done some research in the past (here , here and here).
The two biggest benefits of Kalamazoo’s program are:
- First and foremost, it rewards kids who stay in school and graduate by giving them a free college education (in Kalamazoo’s plan, they provide a free four-year education at a state school for kids who went to Kalamazoo public schools K-12).
- But secondly, it provides an incentive for people to move back into the school boundaries, thus increasing the student population (which gets them more federal and state funding) and pushing up housing sales/property values in the city.
The thing that makes Peoria, and thus Ardis’s plan, different from Kalamazoo’s is that Kalamazoo has just one public school district that, as far as I can tell, is coterminous with the city’s boundaries. In Peoria, you can live within the city limits and attend one of three public school districts: Peoria, Dunlap, or Limestone. In fact, Ardis notes elsewhere in his speech that 70% of Dunlap school students live in Peoria.
The problem is that District 150 is the one public school district in Peoria that really needs this Peoria Promise program more than any other. That’s the district that is losing enrollment. That’s the district that serves the older neighborhoods in town that desperately need building up. I don’t believe Dunlap is having any trouble attracting residents to live within its district boundaries or getting kids to graduate from its schools; nor do the families who live in the north end have trouble affording ICC.
Th mayor’s plan will provide the first (and arguably most important) benefit to District 150 — i.e., rewarding those kids who stay in school and graduate. So, I’m not saying the plan is bad. However, it will not provide the second big benefit: drawing people back into its school boundaries. It won’t do anything to even-out the “haves and have-nots” divide in this community between those who can afford to live in Dunlap schools’ district versus those who can’t. It won’t attract anyone to move into District 150 boundaries who wouldn’t have moved into those boundaries anyway.
Thus, I’m rethinking the “Peoria Promise” as the mayor has outlined it. I think what Peoria needs instead is a “District 150 Promise” — a program based on the Kalamazoo Promise, but only for District 150. Some may argue that Ardis is the mayor of the whole city, and thus he can’t discriminate in favor of one school district. But he’s already “discriminating” (if you will) against students who go to private, parochial, or home schools. What’s the difference?
Besides, he’s not looking for public funding for this initiative, but private funding. Someone with a million dollars to invest in our community could stipulate that it be used only toward those within District 150’s boundaries.
So that’s my challenge. Let’s put this educational investment where it’s needed most.
Yep including school districts other than District 150, pretty much screws District 150. Now peeps have more reasons to move outward.
I’m not sure how much this will be a driving force into or out of D150. Most of the financially better-off families that are fleeing D150 already have the expectation that their children will attend a 4 year university. I suppose it might encourage more people to think about the option of their kids doing 2 years at ICC then transferring to a 4 year school. Several of my friends took that option, and it worked well for them. For the basic level courses, ICC is as good or maybe better than a lot of the 4 year schools.
The city’s concern is the entire city, not just one section of it. Why should other districs be disciminated against just because they have their act together. That’s not really fair.
Ryan, the same reason we don’t give food stamps to people who have good paying jobs: they don’t need it.
Many of District 150’s schools do have their “act together.”
The people moving out of District 150 are those who can afford to move. I would hardly call limiting Peoria promise to District 150 schools “discrimination” when many of the families in areas like Dunlap can afford to send their kids to four-year colleges.
District 150 loses money every time a family moves out of the district, and it is difficult to provide the same level of education despite declining resources. Consequently, businesses in the area fail or relocate to areas like Dunlap or Washington, following the people with money. To continue to thrive economically as a city, as well as to lower crime, Peoria needs to do something to attract families back to District 150. Doing that helps everyone in the Peoria area, so to say that it’s not “fair” is only looking at the short-term.
That’s bullsh!t. Are you telling me there are no lower income families in Dunlap or Limestone school Districts? Why not take Richwoods out of this and make it just Manual, Woodruff and Central students…Richwoods students don’t need the help either and that would force people to move into “the older neighborhoods” south of Forest Hill which is your ultimate goal in life.
I came from a school district similar to Dunlap. My parents were not wealthy. 15 years later, both my mom and I are still paying off student loan bills. A program like this would have helped a lot. I went to the same school district all 12 years. Had I been able to get my first two years paid for, I wouldn’t be in the financial situation I am now.
The majority of the students in Dunlap and Limestone that can afford not to use this program, won’t. They’ll go to a four-year school just like they would without the Promise, but there are students in those districts that are citizens of Peoria that will benefit from a college education just as much as those poor souls in District 150.
You shouldn’t have to bribe anyone to move into District 150.
The Peoria Promise program may make District 150 more attractive, but will not change its reputation. Only time and facts can do that.
If District 150 needs more pupils, have the Legislature move the school district line further north. Dunlap is building schools while Peoria is trying to fill schools. Doesn’t make sense from the big picture perspective. Peorians seem to be stuck on the “Peoria City Schools;” maybe they should put their political clout where their mouth is. Draw a line straight west from Pioneer Parkway and have everything south of that line be in District 150.
Dunlap school district has a surprisingly large amount of lower income students. There are now several apartment complexes in the district that are federally subsidized.
Ryan,
While I am sure that there are poor kids going to Dunlap and to Limestone, (as there are at every school district) as well as middle class and perhaps even wealthy students going to District 150, the percentage of under-privileged families whose children attend District 150 is much higher.
I come from a single-parent home where my mother made less than $20,000. Obviously, she couldn’t financially support my college career. I will still owe money 30 years from now. A program like ‘the promise’ would have helped me also.
The primary reason that I think that ‘the promise’ should be limited to District 150 is that it is giving help where it is most needed. Fairness would denote some scale of who was most deserving, which I don’t think is the point.
The truth is that every school should have some program like ‘the promise’. Limiting the program to District 150 allows the city time to evaluate its effectiveness as well as to build up money from donors to follow through when students graduate.
It also “bribes” people into moving back into District 150. While you may not agree with the method, I think it is a valid plan to repopulate the city, which I think we can probably agree is a good thing for everyone. I haven’t heard too many ideas that are better.
I think you and I differ on some fundamental points, Ryan, and I would like to say that I appreciate your point of view and am enjoying the debate.
#150 snubs help from the city now. Why would the jump on this? The school district does not want taxpayer input let alone city input. Hinton & Co. know what the schools need, just ask them. you will be called the “Vocal Minority”
To promote this program on the basis that offering tuition reimbursement to all students residing in Peoria, except those attending private schools, will provide incentive to move back into the school boundaries (especially District #150) is specious. Perhaps it will provide incentive for parents to move into those areas of the city that are already part of Dunlap or Limestone school districts. But District #150?
Let’s look at the statistics: 3 of the 14 (21%) Distict #150 primary schools are not making adequate yearly progress; 5 of its 10 (50%) middle schools are not making adequate yearly progress; the high schools – the data hasn’t been released yet, but look for at least 3 of the 4 (75%) high schools to be on some kind of academic watch/warning list; and the K-8 Roosevelt is not making adequate yearly progress but Washington is. So, that makes approximately 40% of District #150 schools not making adequate yearly progress or on an academic watch/warning list.
Until the District #150 BOE takes the responsibility for providing sound, effective administrative leadership to citizens residing in the district, this trend will not be reversed. Parents will continue to leave the district as long as the schools are failing to educate their children and are perceived to be unsafe.
If the BOE ever wakes up and assumes its statutory educational leadership responsibility and hires the qualified administrative team the district requires to improve student achievement and resolve the other problems the district faces (including financial, discipline, student safety, physical facilities etc.), then parents will be more inclined to remain in District #150 or purchase homes within District #150. Then the Peoria Promise program will become an additional incentive to remain in the city schools.
Why not allow private school kids and home school kids into the program? If not for options outside D150 places like the uplands would fall to ghetto status fast. People with kids are able to move to areas like the uplands becase of the choice to send their kids to other non-d150 schools. As for dunlap having a large group of poor kids, help me out with this but if memory serves d150 is about 70% minority, dunlap is less then 1% minority.
PrairieCelt: Kalamazoo has two high schools and an alternative high school — both regular high schools, Kalamazoo Central and Loy Norrix, are in Phase II of NCLB improvement. There are three middle schools: Hillside, Millwood, and Maple Street Magnet — Maple Street is in Phase IV (identified for restructuring), and Millwood is in Phase V (implement restructuring). The good news for them is, of Kalamazoo’s 16 elementary schools, only two (Northeastern and Wood Lake) are in the NCLB improvement process (Phase V and III, respectively).
Despite the middle school and high school problems, people are moving into Kalamazoo and putting their kids in those schools to take advantage of the Promise.
Sources:
Kalamazoo NCLB Report Card
Kalamazoo Public Schools Directory
CJ that is good to learn. But, the way Ardis is proposing the program be structured could provide incentive to families in District #150 to move to other areas of the city to take advantage of being in another school district but still qualifying for the ICC tuition reimbursement program.
I really was agreeing with you – the focus should be on District #150, not Dunlap or Limestone attendance areas. But, this program should not be construed to be a panacea to cure the problem of “flight” from District #150 schools. That is the danger when discussing this type of program – that it will “fix” the problems and everything will be okay. Because we both know it is going to take a whole lot more than implementation of the “Peoria Promise” program to accomplish that.
Ghetto: you may be correct about the ethnic demographics of District #150 and Dunlap. But poverty and low-income does not always correlate to ethnicity. Dunlap likely has students classified as low-income or poverty who are not minorities, and they may have minority students who are not from low-income or poverty homes.
PrairieCelt: Agreed. I don’t believe the Peoria Promise alone is going to cure District 150’s ills. Major reforms are needed and the school board needs to get a whole lot more transparent and inclusive if it wants community support for those reforms.
I agree with that. How do we convince the BOE that these reforms have to be made and that they have to start by reforming their behavior? One way is through the ballot box, but with staggered terms, that could take several years to do.
Any voice of dissent is relegated to “vocal minority” status by the District and “knee-jerk conspiracy theorist” status by the PJSEB. So, how do we move these issues into the forefront of the public debate arena?
Alas, time will only tell if this program will benefit District 150, but the proposal is good. Speaking of time, being a new month we can mark it one month closer – still 17 left however – until King Hinton’s reign of colossal failure will finally end. Where is a good old fashioned public uprising when you need one? ^oo^~
CJ: have you seen any information or estimates of the administrative costs of the Peoria Promise program? Will those costs be funded from donations?
It seems that there might be some significant expense involved here. First, hardware and software to manage the participant data. Second, staff to send out and review applications, enter data, receive grade reports/transcripts to verify that the course work was completed, handle inquiries and complaints, calculate, print and distribute checks, office supplies, insurance, etc., etc. Also office space, an administrative and development staff.
Just curious . . .
I’m sure Ardis’s intent is to help revive 150, but as proposed it could have only a minimal effect on enrollment. If he changes the proposal to benefit only District 150 he risks alienating Peoria residents in rapidly-growing District 323, who could turn on him in the next election.
If he is going to forge ahead I’d like to see him get West Peoria leaders on board as their students attend Manual.
Returned – assuming there will be a MHS left to attend – it could turn into a vocational/technical center and traditional students could be dispersed to other district schools.
Assuming MHS stays a traditional high school, buy-in and participation by West Peorians would be essential.
I don’t think a change in format would affect the need to reach out to West Peoria as their children would still be in 150. Unless Ardis is hoping a by-product of Peoria Promise would be West Peorians moving across Western.
I saw something funny earlier that day on YouTube with Mitt Romney 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yAL6lDiCg0 -the joke from Mitt
http://www.week.com/Story.aspx?type=ln&NStoryID=56589 -the joke from CopyCat Ardis!
Rich n Poor is always relative. In the school I went to, I was relatively ‘poor’ among my peers. Dunlap strikes me as a district similar to where I went. In District 150, I would have been pretty upper class. With home prices the way they are in the Dunlap district area, a moderately middle class family would need federally subsidized housing too.
“If he changes the proposal to benefit only District 150 he risks alienating Peoria residents in rapidly-growing District 323, who could turn on him in the next election.”
This underscores why a city should not have two (or more) school districts. As the district 323 constituency grows, the district 150 area will be screwed over even more than it is today. There will be less n less tolerance in seeing their tax dollars ‘subsidizing’ that other town with in a town. Peoria is increasingly divided.
Mahkno – Using your logic… Maybe the City of Peoria should stop expanding into territory already controlled by Dunlap School District 323? I think the Village of Dunlap needs to make a major annexation towards Peoria to stop Peoria from overwhelming them. (No, I don’t live in Dunlap nor do my kids go to Dunlap schools)
CJ, let me be the first to congratulate you for being the first to criticize the plan. At least your criticism was somewhat constructive. Is it the perfect program — no, but it is a great start. I’m all for you raising money only for D150.
This program may or may not be a boon for D150 schools. It might convince some of us who live in D150 to send our kids to their schools rather than the private ones. But this should be a great boon to Peoria, as long as it gets marketed right. Sounds like the Kalamazoo schools are nothing to write home about, but lots more families are moving into the city. If more people move to Peoria, even if into the Dunlap district, that is still a good thing for Peoria.
MDD… I would fully agree that Peoria should stop annexations, especially seeing as they all result in sprawl. I also would not be surprised if at some point the ‘Dunlap’ part of Peoria just decided to secede ala West Peoria. It really is a very different town up there.
The bottom line is this…Ardis is the mayor of Peoria [city]. Are we all confusing city with county here? It is his job to promote Peoria [city] business, schools, etc.
What can schools outside Dist 150 do to compete with the “Peoria Promise?” Who, in the end is going to ‘pay’ for these subsidies…city, county, state, fed…all of the above?
This is an economic incentive program. In concept, it’s not different when TAX DOLLARS are used to entice businesses to locate in the City or a TIF when tax dollars work to improve blighted areas (Please, don’t take the TIF tangent. It’s a different discussion.)
This is a program, funded through donations, not tax dollars aimed to bring families back to the City. It’s an economic incentive. If you and your family take a chance with a Dist 150 school (which IMO isn’t as big of a risk as it’s made to be). You get free 2-yr secondary education. Sounds good to me.
Would it not make more sense for D150 and ICC to partner together on this? That way, the other districts don’t get the benefits and there is an incentive to stay in D150? The city also gets out of paying for it this way.
My understanding that this program is not based on tax dollars, but through donations. If the community comes together to fund this program, then the community is invested in the program and not just monitarily and will hopefully begin looking for graduates of the program as employees. It will help those who want to suceed, but need a boost. Now we need to work on those who have no intentions of changing their behavior or taking advantage of community opportunities. THAT population makes up a chunk of who are being funded, not by community donations, but by taxes. At times there is little to know return on that investment. The Promise program should have return on the investment dollar.
Has anybody heard who is funding this? Has the funding been secured? Is this another one of those announced but unfunded initiatives?
SA,
Do you mean something like the museum?