Several cities, including Detroit, Flint, Muskegon, Pontiac and Saginaw already have expressed interest in starting a Promise Zone. The Michigan Department of Treasury has final approval.

The new law stipulates that each Promise Zone community must, at a minimum, provide all of its high school graduates with tuition equivalent to the cost of obtaining a two-year associate’s degree. Students currently enrolled in Michigan colleges and universities would not be eligible for the tuition support.

Granholm referenced the Promise Zone plan in her 2007 State of the State address. It passed with near-unanimous support in the Senate and almost two-thirds support in the House of Representatives before being sent to Granholm’s desk.

The plan is expected to boost enrollment in Michigan colleges and provide more incentive for high school students to perform well by increasing opportunities for low-income students.

“This is part of (the governor’s) overall economic plan to grow our economy and create jobs,” said Granholm’s spokeswoman, Megan Brown. “A piece of growing the economy and creating jobs is a commitment to making sure our citizens have affordable and first-class education opportunities beyond high school.”

The program is based on the Kalamazoo Promise, a pioneering two-year-old program that pays full tuition for all Kalamazoo-area high school graduates from a pool of money donated by anonymous private citizens.

Since the program’s inception, enrollment at Kalamazoo schools has increased almost 15 percent, a figure “totally unique for any public school district in Michigan,” said Bob Jorth, executive director of the Kalamazoo Promise. For fall 2008, the Kalamazoo Promise paid about $2.5 million in tuition for about 850 students attending colleges throughout Michigan, Jorth said.

Applications to MSU from students in Kalamazoo have increased in recent years. About 100 students from the Kalamazoo area attend MSU and about $500,000 in MSU tuition is paid for by the Kalamazoo Promise.

“What it suggests and proves is that there are a number of very capable students in Kalamazoo Public Schools and likely one of those inhibitors of those students coming to MSU is the ability to pay,” said Jim Cotter, MSU’s director of admissions.

Gary Miron, a Western Michigan University professor studying the effects of the Kalamazoo Promise, said early results show an increase in teacher and student motivation since the program’s inception.