When the anonymous wealthy donors behind the Kalamazoo Promise made their pledge in 2005 to pay for the kids of Kalamazoo to go to college, the idea was shockingly novel. And very appealing: almost instantly other cities around the United States clamored for their own such programs. Eight similar scholarship plans were announced within a year of Kalamazoo’s. Today, the tally of plans inspired by the experiment in Southwest Michigan has topped 30 nationwide.
