Promise of College Aid in Kalamazoo Praised; Potential Pitfalls Seen

Residents of Kalamazoo, Mich., learned last month of a windfall that most parents can only dream about: A group of anonymous donors pledged college scholarships to every graduate of the city’s high schools, starting with the class of 2006.

News of the Kalamazoo Promise was greeted with enthusiasm locally and was splashed across newspapers nationwide.

“It is brilliant that they chose a scholarship program as a way to impact all facets of the community, such as economic development, quality of life, education, real estate, attracting new businesses, and a variety of other variables that we don’t know about yet,” Janice Brown, the superintendent of the Kalamazoo public...