GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids Public Schools can set up a Promise scholarship program after getting state approval.
GRPS Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal told school board members at their Tuesday meeting at the district had been designated a Promise Zone by the Michigan Department of Treasury.
The GRPS Board of Education will next have to pass a resolution to create the Grand Rapids Promise Zone Authority. The resolution will go before the school board at its Sept. 17 meeting.
The authority would be tasked with creating the plan for the scholarship program. It would include 11 members — nine chosen by GRPS and two by state legislative leaders.
Fourteen other districts in the state are Promise Zones, named after the Kalamazoo Promisescholarship that was created more than a decade ago. The program pays in-state college tuition for students who graduate from Kalamazoo Public Schools.
GRPS already has the Challenge Scholars program, which provides some Union High School graduates with up to four years' tuition at certain colleges.