HBCU students from one Michigan school district will soon be able to take one of the nation’s best-known college tuition guarantees to HBCUs across the country.
The Kalamazoo Promise announced that beginning in fall 2027, eligible Kalamazoo Public Schools graduates can use their scholarships at fully accredited four-year HBCUs nationwide.
That’s a significant change for a program traditionally tied to colleges and universities in Michigan.
Since its creation in 2005, the privately funded Kalamazoo Promise has helped more than 9,000 students. It has awarded more than $250 million in scholarships.
Now the HBCU expansion creates a national exception to that Michigan-centered model.
“Over our 20-year history, The Kalamazoo Promise has always been about opening doors for our students and expanding it to include HBCUs widens that promise in a meaningful way,” Kalamazoo Promise CEO Von Washington Jr. said.
How the Kalamazoo Promise works
The size of a student’s scholarship depends on how long that student continuously attended Kalamazoo Public Schools and lived within the district.
Students enrolled from kindergarten through 12th grade can receive 100 percent of tuition and mandatory fees. The percentage gradually declines for students who entered the district later. Students attending continuously from ninth through 12th grade are eligible for 65 percent.
Students generally must remain enrolled full-time and maintain at least a 2.0 GPA while using the scholarship.
The program can cover as many as 145 credits. Students generally have 10 years after high school graduation to use the benefit.
The Kalamazoo Promise covers tuition and mandatory fees. Housing, meals, books and other expenses are not part of that basic benefit. That distinction could be particularly important for students choosing an HBCU outside Michigan. Those students will still have to account for the cost of living away from home.
The new benefit will not retroactively cover previous semesters for students already attending historically Black institutions. However, eligible Kalamazoo graduates currently enrolled at an HBCU can receive the scholarship for future semesters beginning in fall 2027.
HBCUs gain a new recruiting opportunity
Michigan does not have a traditional HBCU. That means Michigan students wanting the historically Black college experience must leave the state.
For eligible Kalamazoo graduates, that financial decision will soon change.
“Belonging and identity are just as essential to student success as access,” Kalamazoo Promise Chief Strategy Officer Sarah Klerk said. “Now fewer of our scholars will have to choose between financial support and a school where they see themselves reflected.”
A committee of local education leaders and community representatives studied HBCUs before recommending the expansion. The group also developed guidelines for implementing the change.
Kalamazoo Public Schools Superintendent Darrin Slade said officials expect the expanded options to increase scholarship use. For HBCUs, that creates a recruiting opportunity.
Schools already recruiting in Michigan can now identify Kalamazoo Public Schools graduates knowing some could arrive with most or all of their tuition and mandatory fees covered. And the program isn’t restricting students to HBCUs near Michigan.
Eligible graduates can choose accredited four-year HBCUs across the country while retaining the scholarship.
That potentially puts institutions in North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and other states into consideration.
Could other Promise programs follow?
The Kalamazoo Promise helped inspire a broader movement of place-based college scholarship programs after its 2005 launch.
That makes its decision to add HBCUs worth watching outside Michigan.
Many Promise-style programs use geographic restrictions because they are designed to encourage local educational and economic development. Kalamazoo is now making a notable exception for historically Black colleges and universities.
For HBCUs, the next question is whether other communities might follow.
One city expanding its scholarship won’t dramatically reshape national HBCU enrollment.
But the model could become significant if other place-based programs begin allowing students to take their benefits to historically Black colleges outside their home states.
Beginning next fall, eligible Kalamazoo students won’t have to choose between keeping their Promise and attending an HBCU.
They can take the Promise with them.