Imagine living in a city where your four-year college degree would be entirely funded by anonymous donors — as long as you graduate high school.

That's what the Kalamazoo Promise — founded just over five years ago by a group of anonymous school supporters — is all about. The Promise covers tuition at any Michigan state college for graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools.

Students must apply during their senior year in high school, but they have up to 10 years to take advantage of the deal. They must also enroll in college full-time and maintain at least a
2.0 grade-point average. (Students have to purchase their own textbooks and other college-related supplies.)

And students can take a semester or a year off and then return to school if they like — as long as they complete their degree within 10 years.

"We're getting students into college," said Bob Jorth, executive administrator — and one of only two employees — for the nonprofit Kalamazoo Promise. Since its inception in 2005, more than 90 percent of Kalamazoo students have taken advantage of the Promise, he said.

The not-so-subtle goal of the Promise is one that many educational leaders in Santa Fe have mentioned: to create a well-educated workforce that can in turn support economic development opportunities by attracting big business.

"The donors understand that economic vitality is directly connected to the education level of the populace," Jorth said. "Data shows that 80 percent of the fastest-growing jobs in the country require a secondary diploma."

So far, the Promise has not increased high-school graduation rates, he admitted — but enrollment in Kalamazoo Public Schools has increased by more than 20 percent since the Promise began.

To date, the Promise has paid out about $25 million, he said. It is set up to go on "forever," he said.

Kalamazoo, in southwestern Michigan, has a population of about 80,000 — about 12,000 more than the city of Santa Fe's current population. Its student population is very similar to ours, with 12,600 students in Kalamazoo public schools.

Who is funding the Promise? Jorth won't say, other than to emphasize that several billionaires live in Kalamazoo. But a city with some collective private wealth could get something like this going, he said — though perhaps not quite on the scale of Kalamazoo's. A few other cities and states are working to copy the Kalamazoo Promise.

"It's a tragedy that private individuals have to fund post-secondary education when everyone talks about it being a world economy and the only way we can compete in that world is through education," Jorth said. "Education is something that should be supported by everyone."

Visit kalamazoopromise.com for more information on the project. You can also Google Kalamazoo Gazette reporter Julie Mack's in-depth November 2010 article for a fuller view of the Promise.

Incidentally, I once sang (badly) a song called "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" in a theater show, and that reminded me to research how Kalamazoo got its name. Many historians believe it's an old Native American phrase for boiling pot, reflecting river or mirror.

But here's what the Kalamazoo Public Library website has to say: "Even with its obvious Indian roots, the exact origins of the word 'Kalamazoo' remain shrouded in mystery. The truth will probably never be found. The pioneers bent the syllables of the Indian word to fit the more familiar English sounds, in the process muddling them so much that today's experts can't determine what the word means."

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.