Promise

Kalamazoo Gazette Viewpoint

It was about a year ago that Dr. Janice Brown announced the initiation of the Kalamazoo Promise. It did not take long for the Promise to achieve national visibility. Over the course of the year, there have been a number of visits to Kalamazoo from national media reporters as well as many calls from people in other communities who are seriously interested in establishing their own version of our Promise.

The Promise puts Kalamazoo in a position of national leadership in education but this is not the first time that this has happened. Kalamazoo occupies an important place in American educational history. Textbooks that deal with the formation and development of the American public schools inevitably cite the “Kalamazoo case.” Kalamazoo was among the earliest cities in the U.S. to provide free secondary schooling for all residents of the district. In the 19th century the idea of free secondary schooling was controversial.

In 1875, the Michigan Supreme Court heard a challenge by Charles E. Stuart of Kalamazoo who contested the authority of the school board to collect taxes to support Kalamazoo Central High so that all students could attend without paying tuition. The Michigan Supreme Court found for the Kalamazoo School Board and asserted that the Board was within its legal authority to provide a tax supported high school. Writing for the majority, Judge Thomas M. Cooley’s decision contained these words:

We supposed it had always been understood in this state that education, not merely in the rudiments, but in an enlarged sense, was regarded as an important practical advantage to be supplied at their option to rich and poor alike, and not as something pertaining merely to culture and accomplishment to be brought as such within the reach of those whose accumulated wealth enabled them to pay for it.

The Kalamazoo Case is generally credited with being the precedent which paved the way for tax supported high schools throughout the U.S. Even though there is a plaque describing this landmark decision in front of “Old Central High,” the important role that Kalamazoo played in the formation of public education in the U.S. does not seem to be generally known here in Kalamazoo. We can be justly proud of the vision of those who came before us in Kalamazoo in expanding educational opportunities for the youth of our city and consequently in our nation.

One hundred and thirty years later Kalamazoo is again breaking new ground. In 2006 it is clear that the welfare of our young people and the economic viability of our community necessitate education which goes beyond secondary schooling Given the economic changes that have occurred in the in the past several decades, it is no exaggeration to contend that education beyond high school, whether it be technical training or university education, goes beyond being an “important practical advantage.” For any young person who wants to live a good life and make their best contribution to the welfare of their community , post- secondary education is a necessity. The exceptional generosity of the donors of the Promise funds was matched by their wisdom in recognizing that investing in the education of our young people could be the catalyst for economic and community development in the Kalamazoo area.

The Promise is a challenge. There is widespread recognition in our community that merely dropping the Promise into the status-quo would not enable the Promise to accomplish what it can and should accomplish for the Kalamazoo area. Despite the fact that we face some tough problems in enabling all our young people in KPS to take advantage of the Promise, we have every reason to be optimistic. Throughout our city, there is unprecedented determination to tackle the problems. Our challenge is to take on the problems with the same level of bold and innovative thinking that got the Promise to Kalamazoo in the first place.

When I accepted the job as WMU Coordinator for the Promise, the charge I received from the WMU Provost was to the point: “We want you to help us ensure that WMU does all it can do to make the Promise successful.” My work involves outreach with regard to continuing and expanding WMU’s partnerships with KPS and other community agencies that serve the interests of children and youth. It also involves “inreach” pertaining to Promise scholarship recipients at WMU. I have found great support from the WMU administration and enthusiastic willingness to help from my colleagues on the faculty as well as from staff and students. Over the next few years all the support and enthusiastic willingness to help will be need because there is lots of work to be done.

Just as it was a century or so ago, what we accomplish in greater Kalamazoo can point the way to a better future for our youth and renewed vitality for our community. We have forgotten the names of those Kalamazoo visionaries from over a century ago whose work is memorialized in the plaque outside old Central but the impact of their vision endured. Long after our names are forgotten, what we accomplish can remain to the benefit of countless citizens of the Kalamazoo area and can inspire others in communities throughout our nation to take the same path we are taking.

James Bosco is a professor emeritus of Educational Studies at Western Michigan University and is serving as the WMU coordinator for the Promise.

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