Gov. Jennifer Granholm is on a tour to save the Michigan Promise Scholarship.
And her next stop?
Eastern Michigan University.
Granholm will be visiting campus from 9 – 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Student Center to discuss the scholarship.
“Promises should be kept, not broken,” Granholm said in a radio address Friday. “It’s time for the Michigan Senate to take action and keep the Michigan Promise.”
Tiffany Brown, a spokesperson for Granholm, said, “The governor is visiting Eastern Michigan University as well as other college campuses across the state this week and next because she wants college students throughout Michigan to know that the fight for the Michigan Promise Scholarship is still on.”
Students are being encouraged to attend and make their voices heard.
“Not only does breaking the Promise hurt students who were rightfully expecting their scholarship money, it also damages Michigan’s economic future,” Granholm said.
“We need a workforce equipped with the education and training needed for 21st century jobs. We need to keep the Promise.”
Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop’s spokesman Matt Marsden said the senator sees the governor’s tour not as an attempt to save scholarships but as an attempt to raise taxes – something the Republican-controlled senate has vowed not to do.
Marsden said the state budget was passed in a bipartisan fashion, and that the governor knew the scholarship program was not in the budget she signed.
As far as Bishop is concerned, Marsden said, “That budget year is closed.”
Marsden said Bishop, R-Rochester, and his fellow Republicans would like to see the scholarship reinstated. But currently, he said, the state can’t afford it without putting an extra tax burden on Michigan citizens.
