In a joint meeting of the Michigan House and Senate Subcommittees on Higher Education Thursday morning, access to higher education institutions like MSU was the focus.
The meeting centered around testimony from Michigan College Access Network and the organization’s efforts to increase the number of Michigan’s high school graduates receiving some sort of post-secondary education.
In her testimony to the subcommittees, Michigan College Access Network executive director Brandy Johnson said her organization works to adapt graduates to the realities of a new economy. She said the organization’s definition of college extends to technical and associate degrees.
“We think that college is a necessity in a 21st century technology-based economy,” Johnson said.
The organization mostly promotes high school students to be prepared for and apply to college through specialized local access networks, but it also works on issues such as degree completion and remedial education in universities.
Johnson said more students would successfully obtain degrees at universities like MSU if they entered the universities better prepared.
“I think it’s more students attending that aren’t fully prepared,” Johnson said. “That’s where we feel like we should come in, on the preparation level. Not just academic preparation, but cultural and social preparation (and) financial preparation.”
The organization has a shared goal along with other national organizations to have 60 percent of adults receiving post-secondary education. Johnson said in Michigan, 36 percent of high school graduates go on to further their educations.
Education program director for The Kresge Foundation William Moses also testified and said MSU’s land grant heritage holds special significance.
“Since the Morrill Act of 1862, we have seen public higher education as a critical engine of economic growth and a way to educate our citizens,” Moses said. “It’s been a very successful strategy for 150 years.”
Rep. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, asked Johnson what funding MCAN would need to receive from the state in order to help reach the goal. Johnson said there are more effective ways to improve access to higher education.
“My recommendation would be to invest more in student financial aid,” Johnson said. “I think that’s a way state government could really restore some of the growth in numbers that we want to see.”
Johnson pointed to the defunct Michigan Promise Scholarship as an example of aid that helped open doors to higher education.
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