 "Photo: Courtesy Bryan G. Pfeifer")
The Michigan Promise Scholarship debate expects to strike again, along with many other educational rifts at a proposed March 4 rally in Detroit.
The National Day of Action to Defend Education originated in California. The group’s Web site, defendeducation.org, is asking students, parents, workers, teachers, organizations and communities nationwide to “massively mobilize and strike” in protest of education cuts.
“Last fall in California, the regents at the University of California imposed a 32 percent tuition increase,” said Brian G. Pfeifer, staff organizer for WSU’s Union of Part Time Faculty Local 477. “The students and workers across that state knew that was coming so they organized massive demonstrations to be at the meeting where the increase was voted on.
Many different alliances and coalitions rose out of those demonstrations, he said.
The Detroit demonstration is targeting the restoration of the Michigan Promise Scholarship, created in 2006 to provideing graduating high school seniors with up to $4,000 for college tuition.
After Michigan cut the scholarship at the beginning of the 2009-10 academic year, Gov. Jennifer Granholm debuted a plan to offer a tax credit in place of the scholarship — a credit the group calls “phony.”
The targets aren’t limited to colleges, either. Among the list of demands is restoring full funding of public K-12 education be restored as well as the firing of Detroit Public Schools Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb.
Bobb, who is in his second term as EFM, spoke Feb. 24 at the Wayne State Alumni House on the subject of education.
The DPS district is facing a deficit of nearly $300 million.
The defendeducation.org group points to $18.7 billion of Michigan taxpayer funds that will go to the defense-spending fund in FY 2010. It claims that money could give “1,924,702 scholarships for university students for one year” or “264,394 elementary school teachers (jobs) for one year.”
Many Wayne State students haven’t heard about this march — at least not yet.
“I think education is a key aspect to our society,” said Bob Maxwell, a junior pharmacy major. “Without education, society can’t really run.”
Maxwell, a Canadian student, admittedly said the consternation surrounding the Michigan Promise doesn’t affect him.
The Detroit demonstration begins at 4 p.m. at Gullen Mall, located in the central part of the Wayne State campus.
At 4:30 p.m., the demonstration will march to the Cadillac Plaza and the Detroit Public Schools headquarters, before a 5 p.m. picket and rally outside the Plaza and the Fisher Building.
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