Michigan’s largest free tuition program for adults to attend community college has lowered its eligibility to 21.
Traditionally, adults 25 and older have been eligible for Michigan Reconnect. In the state’s 2027 education budget, lawmakers have included an additional $25 million to expand the program for 21- to 24-year old Michigan residents.
Michigan Reconnect is designed to fully cover tuition for students attending an in-district community college, and a large discount for students who are going out of district.
But this expansion for adults age 21 and up is only for a year.
Ryan Bliss is the executive director for the Michigan College Access Network.
He said that despite this expanded age group option only lasting for a year, the need is not going anywhere.
“It was passed as part of the budget, and not passed as part of a permanent change to the program. [Senator] McCann and other partners will be working over the rest of this legislative year and into the next, if we need to, to make it permanent, because we know the problem isn't going to go away in one budget cycle,” said Bliss.
Michigan has been extensively funding postsecondary education programs such as the Michigan Achievement Scholarship for recent high school graduates, and Michigan Reconnect for adults 25 and older. However, Bliss noted, a large population of individuals were excluded from receiving state funding.
“The Michigan Achievement Scholarship includes the Community College Guarantee and Michigan Reconnect. 21 to 24 year olds are not eligible for either of those in the traditional sense,” said Bliss. “This was sort of a lost population that even if they had made up their mind to go to school or go back to school, there was not a lot of state-based financial aid for them. So this Reconnect 21 program helps to solve that problem by reducing that age of eligibility.”
This is not the first time that Michigan Reconnect has been available for 21- to 24-year olds.
In 2023, the state temporarily offered this expansion. According to the state, this was done to help Michigan reach the goal of “Sixty by 30.” In other words, to have 60% of adults earn a postsecondary education or training by 2030.
As of 2024, the most recent available data, 51.6% of Michigan residents had either a postsecondary degree or short-term credential.
Sarah Szurpicki is the Deputy Director for MiLEAP’s Office of Higher Education.
She said the first expansion was an attempt to combat disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic.
“The original expansion of Reconnect down to age 21 was through federal COVID recovery dollars. It just was a limited funding source that ended, and so we had to only do it temporarily,” said Szurpicki. “It was a COVID recovery program because those were adults, young adults who had likely been disconnected from education during the coronavirus pandemic.”
For someone who may be on the fence about applying to Michigan Reconnect, Szurpicki said there are many reasons why it’s a safe bet.
“For anyone who's thinking about, how do I earn a little more? How do I find a career that I really love? How do I make sure that in this time of uncertainty I have a stable path? Investing your time and energy and letting the state pay the tuition and going back to college is the closest thing to a guarantee you can have of finding that stable path for yourself and your family,” said Szurpicki.
