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Welcome to a new policy year with TICAS! Last year, our focus was on community outreach, and we are so grateful for all the amazing work and success we have achieved with you in the last year. We will continue to connect with great partners like yourself as we continue our work onward. We also cannot wait to continue working with you on expanding college access, affordability, and success for Michigan’s students.  

For more information about what we did last year, read our 2022 – 2023 impact report here.  

This year, we will be focusing on affordability and transparency. When we talk about college affordability, we mean: 

  • Accounting for the full cost of college including housing, transportation, and other non-tuition expenses that are critical to student success and inflate the cost of a degree.  
  • Reducing the amount of loans students need to rely on to cover the cost of a degree or credential.  
  • Streamlining financial aid to be more accessible and reliable for students and families. 
  • Clarity on the comparative costs of different postsecondary pathways i.e. Is it really less expensive to start at a two-year program and transfer to a four-year? Etc. 

Ongoing federal and state policymakers’ affordability efforts center on lowering the burden of tuition for students or forgiving current student loans. While these efforts are critical, they fall short of meeting the total costs of college for students with financial need beyond tuition, don’t move the needle on demystifying the true cost of college, arm students and families with information and resources about how to pay for college and about navigating which pathway is the most affordable and effective for students and families to reach family goals. We heard you! What Michiganders need to move towards college being more affordable, and to make the most of the promise of recent state investments in financial aid, is more transparency on the status quo. Therefore, to truly move the needle on affordability, we need to also talk about transparency.   

Let’s Start with Creating more Clarity on the Importance of FAFSA and Financial Aid 

In August, Senator Camilleri introduced SB436 (Universal FAFSA Completion Policy) which will make completing the FAFSA or an opt-out form a high school graduation requirement in Michigan. Rather than simply being a “mandatory FAFSA”, the policy is trying to create a mandatory touchpoint between students, families, and education professionals about the FAFSA and life after high school graduation. Far too few students – especially students of color and those from low-income backgrounds – receive the information and support they need to complete the FAFSA. By setting the expectation that a FAFSA should be completed or opted out of, the state is elevating the importance of more conversations about postsecondary planning, financial aid, and other opportunities.  

Read our Fact Sheet on the FAFSA Bill here! 

What’s Next? 

This fall we will be balancing continuing to advocate for our FY23 priorities and starting to identify our priorities for coming year. See how you can support this work below! 

  • Review SB436, provide feedback, and/or lend your support to the bill. 
    • If you have concerns about how SB436 will impact students, families, educators, and support staff in your community, try to think of ways the bill could be improved.
    • If you need a thought partner in coming up with solutions, reach out to:
      • TICAS 
      • Local educators and counselors 
      • Student and parent groups 
    • After you’ve considered your feedback, please let us or Senator Camilleri’s office know!
  • Capital outlay is the process of making investments to maintain, upgrade, and acquire buildings, equipment, technology, and other infrastructure. You can participate in the state capital outlay process by supporting funding for community college housing! 
    • This proposal has implications for community college’s use of Infrastructure, Technology, Equipment Maintenance, and Safety (ITEMS) funding and could help to expand housing opportunities for rural campuses in particular. 
    • Reach out to local legislators and those on the capital outlay committee and ask them to support this proposal.  
  • Identify which policy priorities you would like to champion in the coming year.  
    • Start gathering relevant sources and research on this topic and try to contextualize how this issue impacts particular communities and Michiganders. 
    • Share this information with legislators and potential partners to start generating support for the issue.  
  • Prepare for conference season in the fall! 
    • Explore some of the great conference opportunities this fall including MCAN, MASA and MACAE’s annual conferences. 

As we strategize for the coming year, the TICAS Michigan team wants to be sure to keep you informed on what’s on the horizon related to higher education and financial aid policy. If there is any item listed above that you’d like to learn more about or be more closely involved in, please reach out to Manon Steel on our team by email (msteel@ticas.org) or by scheduling a meeting here. 

Partner Updates 

Please send any resources, events, or other materials that you would like us to share in our newsletters to Manon Steel at msteel@ticas.org. 

Community Partner Highlights 

List of Institutions Offering Free Applications and Waivers, Michigan College Access Network – This is a list of Michigan colleges and universities with free applications or fee waivers for admission.  

Pontiac Counts! Cradle to Career Readiness: There Key Metrics can Help Shape Community Program and Initiative Development – This blog explains how the Pontiac community can implement best practices to improve student outcomes from their early childhood development to their matriculation into a postsecondary education program. It also identifies where Pontiac stands in terms of key metrics to serve as a baseline for continued improvement and understanding of where extra supports may be needed.  

State’s education budget supports student success, Rachel Richards, Michigan League for Public Policy – This article outlines how the recent investments made in Michigan’s FY24 budget will work to better support students and directly address persistent problems in the classroom, including the largest increase in per-pupil spending in Michigan history.  

Saginaw Valley prof talks design and preparing students for careers, J. Blake Johnson, Michigan Education Association – In this interview J. Blake Johnson, recipient of MEA’s Distinguished Servant of Public Education Award, talks about a practical design experience program (Cardinal Solutions) that he founded at Saginaw Valley State University.  

Career Opportunity 

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATED WORKFORCE STRATEGY (Full-time, In-Person (Lansing),    $85,000-$100,000) The Director of Educated Workforce Strategy is a new position at Michigan College Access Network (MCAN) that will lead the organization’s strategies focused on supporting systems change across Michigan’s workforce development sector in tandem with higher education, K12, and local community sectors to advance the organization’s Sixty by 30 goal. Under the supervision of the Deputy Director, the Director of Educated Workforce Strategy serves as a senior leader and supports various initiatives and projects focused across the workforce development sector aligned to MCAN’s strategic plan and Strategy for an Educated Workforce, both of which expand the organizational scope to include a dedicated focus on adult learners, college completion, employer engagement, and the workforce development sector more directly. 

TICAS Michigan Resources  

This year TICAS is proud to work with 10 Student Advocacy Fellows from across the great state of Michigan which we will be formally introducing soon. To better understand the barriers students are facing, we asked applicants what “college affordability” means to them. They told us college is unaffordable for everyone and low-income students in particular. We must do more to help students earn a degree. Read their thoughts on college affordability and what we can do to help make a college education attainable here.  

Partner Events and Resources 

New Partners, Welcome! 

Partnership is a great opportunity not only for the purpose of collaboration and alignment of shared interest, but it also allows our TICAS Michigan team to learn how we can best advocate for the needs of Michigan students and families in policy by learning from community partners.  

Please join us in uplifting community partner organizations impacting students on their postsecondary journeys across the state. 

Genesee County Board of Commissioners 

Local Circles 

Michigan Immigrant Richts Center 

Michigan School Counseling Association 

Muskegon Covenant Academy 

Pontiac Collective Impact Partnership 

Promise Neighborhoods KBIC 

SkillsUSA 

Swipe Out Hunger 

Talent First 

482Forward 

If you are interested in sharing with us how we could best support your community and partners alike in policy, please use and share the form below on “How to Get Involved”. This form is not a commitment form but rather an opportunity for us to learn more about the needs in supporting Michigan communities in higher education policy and resources needed.   

How to Get Involved