Courtesy Photo This Oct. 8, 2019 drone photo shows North Central Michigan College’s main campus in Petoskey.

ALPENA — In January, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she wanted to make community college free for all.

With the passage of the state’s 2025 budget, that dream is now a reality for Michigan high school graduates.

The Democrat-controlled state Legislature OK’d an $82.5 billion state budget that begins Oct. 1. The budget will provide $19 billion toward school aid.

Higher education and the workforce will see a plethora of investments, such as scholarships and a continuation of existing programs such as the Michigan Achievement Scholarship and Michigan Reconnect, which allows older Michiganders to return to college and for which the eligibility age has been reduced from 25 to 21.

However, the area that will directly impact high school graduates and incoming community college students is an increase in state funding to universities and community colleges to push Whitmer’s so-called 60 by 30 goal of 60% of working adults earning a degree or skills certificate by 2030.

In her recent release, Whitmer said the new budget includes the Michigan Guarantee, which will save more than 18,000 students up to $4,820 on their tuition each year when pursuing an associate degree or skills certificate at a community college.

Alpena Community College officials, meanwhile, said they are still working out the logistics of the new budget passing. Financial Aid Director Amanda Belusar said in an email that is partially because state programs can change frequently, especially if they are new.

“The state needs time to provide guidance to colleges on how to award the program or if it falls under a current program,” she wrote in the email.

North Central Michigan College is a community college headquartered in Petoskey, but has additional learning centers in Gaylord and Cheboygan. The college sees most students come through on a transfer pathway, meaning they’ll earn credits at the community college before transferring to a university, but they also receive lots of students pursuing nursing, child education, and skill certificates, or “fast-track career” programs.

Renee DeYoung is the vice president of student affairs for the college. She said many students who attend North Central are Pell Grant eligible, and about 75% of the school’s student population who could receive federal financial aid do receive it.

North Central President David Finley said he’s optimistic about Michigan Guarantee and excited to start marketing it to incoming students.

“We learned officially just yesterday that that would be available for this coming fall,” he said. “We’ve just begun having the conversations on how we best promote this new opportunity … We’re extremely excited about recent high school graduates being able to access this.”

Finley said that, before the budget was passed, many students could attend North Central tuition-free thanks to federal and in-state programs, but he hopes to see those numbers go up.

He expects to see a 1% to 2% increase in enrollment, which would be between 25 and 50 more students. However, he said he hopes to be proven wrong and see even more students enroll.

However, the program may not benefit everyone equally.

DeYoung said students’ credits are calculated differently based on where they live.

Students living in-district, or in Emmet County, pay $148 per contact hour. But students living outside the district in counties like Charlevoix, Cheboygan, and Otsego have to pay $250 per contact hour.

“The student has to make the difference up,” she said. “We look internally at the scholarships that the students can apply for here to see if we can help in making that difference up so the student doesn’t have to come up with that additional cost.”

While Finley and DeYoung said they are still in process of figuring out how to “market” the Michigan Guarantee to students and figure out the logistics and what it will cover, they both said they are optimistic for the future of students at North Central.

This story was produced by the Michigan News Group Internship Program, a collaboration between WCMU Public Media and local newspapers in central and northern Michigan. The program’s mission is to train the next generation of journalists and combat the rise of rural news deserts.