Birmingham Promise Program (school, move, tuition)

[harry chickpea]

I don't like doing mass deletes, but there was a thread topic.

Posts that stuck to that topic remain. If you had a post that was deleted then you engaged in, or abetted, trash talk about other members, whinging about whether B'ham or Huntsville is better, or some other off topic junk. The thread is now locked for a few days. If you have something ON TOPIC you can post it when I open it back up. A reminder also that personal attacks are against the TOS and I'm beginning to get an itch to enforce some time-outs in the quiet chair. Y'all are messing with my Labor Day weekend.

Edit to add:
It has been a couple of days. Let's try again. Thread re-opened.

[GotLuv4Bham]

The city of Birmingham has approved $10 million toward the Birmingham Promise program! Also, Fox6 has done a very informative three part video series on the program and what a similar program did for Kalamazoo Michigan. Check out this very detailed reporting on the topic.

https://www.wbrc.com/2019/10/15/bham...ttend-college/

[mcalumni01]

Originally Posted by GotLuv4Bham

The city of Birmingham has approved $10 million toward the Birmingham Promise program! Also, Fox6 has done a very informative three part video series on the program and what a similar program did for Kalamazoo Michigan. Check out this very detailed reporting on the topic.

https://www.wbrc.com/2019/10/15/bham...ttend-college/

This has a chance to be transformative for the city. The one key component in all of this is people opinion of BCS. Will those outside the city limit consider it worth it in the long run to have that opportunity for their child to have this financial support for college. In that fox6 story, they reported student attendance increase by 1K the first year after it started and now years later are running out of space.

I believe since most OTM parents work inside birmingham city limit, their perference would had been to reside inside city limits. Can this change the minds of those starting families and leaving for the 'burbs to consider staying..?

[GotLuv4Bham]

As I've said before, it's not realistic to think a massive amount of people are going to abandon top notch school systems OTM. However, it will draw a significant number of new students from all over the metro area and throughout the state. It will definitely stop the exodus. It's going to be huge for Birmingham City Schools!

[BamaDave]

I love this program, and not really as a recruiting tool to bring people back into Birmingham, but as a way to move poorer children in the city more toward equity in educational opportunities. However, access to college from a financial standpoint is just one piece of the puzzle. I'm a community college faculty member, and it's mind boggling how many young people (and older) walk through our doors terribly unprepared and can't even make it past the first semester despite remediation, ample tutoring, low student:faculty ratios, etc. The K-12 years are formative, and some people can overcome really weak preparation during that time, but most cannot. I hope Birmingham Promise will extend beyond providing scholarships for college and toward improving all Birmingham K-12 schools.

[magiccity3]

I think people of this forum would be interested in hearing more about this from the Mayor himself - he talked a lot about it on the city’s new podcast Magic City Monday’s, I would recommend listening to it. He’s using it as a big workforce development initiative to get more buy in from corporations in the city. I like what I heard.

[GotLuv4Bham]

Originally Posted by magiccity3

I think people of this forum would be interested in hearing more about this from the Mayor himself - he talked a lot about it on the city’s new podcast Magic City Monday’s, I would recommend listening to it. He’s using it as a big workforce development initiative to get more buy in from corporations in the city. I like what I heard.

I'll have to check that podcast out. I love what Mayor Woodfin is doing with the city right now!

[mcalumni01]

Originally Posted by magiccity3

I think people of this forum would be interested in hearing more about this from the Mayor himself - he talked a lot about it on the city’s new podcast Magic City Monday’s, I would recommend listening to it. He’s using it as a big workforce development initiative to get more buy in from corporations in the city. I like what I heard.

That's what he is really aiming this for. 50/50 deal. He knows there will be those that choose college after high school and those that would prefer not to and perhaps enters the workforce after completion of high school. Equal opportunity for all graduating seniors..

[GotLuv4Bham]

Mayor Woodfin is pressing business community to support his popular Birmingham Promise program! The mayor is definitely a breath of fresh air for the city of Birmingham!

https://www.al.com/news/2020/01/wood...m-promise.html

[BamaDave]

Originally Posted by GotLuv4Bham

Mayor Woodfin is pressing business community to support his popular Birmingham Promise program! The mayor is definitely a breath of fresh air for the city of Birmingham!

https://www.al.com/news/2020/01/wood...m-promise.html

I really like the internship part of the program. Scholarship money can help with college access, but opening college doors is only one aspect of keeping students there, engaged, and motivated to do well.