Thirty-three percent of students enrolled in the Michigan Reconnect Program didn’t receive a grant because their costs were already paid by other scholarships, a recent Michigan Auditor General Report shows.

The Reconnect Program is part of Gov. Whitmer’s effort to increase the average level of postsecondary education and training in Michigan to 60% by 2030. Currently, 51.1% of Michigan’s working-age adults have earned a postsecondary credential, according to the Lumina Foundation. Michigan residents aged 21 and older who don’t already have a college degree are eligible for the program, which pays for community college tuition and offers no repercussions if students do not graduate.

The Auditor General report offers a welcome source of data about the performance of the Michigan Reconnect program beyond state press releases.

It’s a last-dollar program, which means that community colleges must first exhaust all other sources of aid for a student – including federal income-based scholarships such as the Pell grant, local aid, the so-called Michigan Achievement Scholarships and academic scholarships – before tapping into Reconnect funds.

One in three Reconnect students covered their costs entirely through these other sources of support and did not need the grant.

The office that administers the program, the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement and Potential (MiLEAP), has only spent about 75% of the $146 million appropriated for Michigan Reconnect since 2021. How will MiLEAP spend the remaining $36.1 million, given that one-third of Reconnect students do not need the assistance?

One unfortunate omission from the Auditor General report is the number of Reconnect students who have graduated with a credential and attained a higher-paying job. The need to increase access to economic opportunity was a pivotal argument to justify the Reconnect program from its inception. The bipartisan Michigan Reconnect program will connect thousands of Michiganders to good-paying jobs and connect businesses with the talent they need to thrive in their communities,” Gov. Whitmer said when she signed the legislation. The Auditor General report doesn’t provide any data to measure Reconnect’s success by the governor’s own standard.

Many programs to help needy students already exist, and many of the students the Michigan Reconnect program is intended to help are already getting full assistance from other programs. Taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for funding redundancies.

Michigan policymakers should study the data carefully and consider whether the program is accomplishing its stated goals. Instead, they have already expanded eligibility for the Reconnect program before assessing its effectiveness.

MiLEAP and community colleges must start collecting and reporting data on Reconnect student outcomes such as graduation, post-graduation job placement and associated increases in earnings. Making this information transparent to the public will allow everyone involved, from students and community college administrators to taxpayers and state officials, to determine whether the program is succeeding—or whether it’s needed at all.

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