Students already being billed for lost Promise money

The fallout has already begun for some students in the state who were relying on a Michigan Promise scholarship to help pay for college. Grand Valley State University has started billing students for the additional tuition that would otherwise have been paid by the scholarship in anticipation of the grant being the victim of budget cuts. The Holland Sentinel reports:

GVSU announced to students Monday that it was no longer crediting the Michigan Promise scholarship toward tuition bills. The scholarship was cut out of a higher education budget approved by the House and Senate and now headed toward the governor’s desk.

“We are the messengers for someone else’s bad news,” said Matthew McLogan, vice president for university relations. He said students seemed to be more angry at the state than the university.

“I think there is considerable dissatisfaction, and I hardly blame the students,” McLogan said.

Hope College is holding off on making a similar decision until the budget is settled. There’s still a chance that those scholarships could be restored, as the Democrats are still attempting to raise revenue to restore them.