Inmates in Michigan’s prisons have a new avenue for getting financial aid for postsecondary education thanks to a change to a state program that had long excluded incarcerated individuals.

The 2020 state budget struck boilerplate language that previously banned people in prison from accessing Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program, or TIP.

The state-funded program reimburses tuition costs for Medicaid-eligible students at participating public and private institutions. TIP covers reimbursement for an associate’s degree or certificate. Then, up to $2,000 is offered toward a bachelor’s degree.

Terrell Blount, a program associate with the Vera Institute of Justice, said expanding eligibility to inmates is a “big win” for Michigan, where college funding opportunities for people in prison are limited. Michigan is now among 18 states that don’t have a barrier to state financial aid for incarcerated students, he said.

“It makes a statement saying that … education changes lives. It reduces recidivism,” said Blount, who worked with state agency officials and policymakers to change TIP's eligibility. “Everyone agrees people should be held accountable for what they've done or committed, but that doesn't mean that they should be deprived and have their educational opportunity taken away from them.”

Blount said he doesn’t expect financial aid for inmates to take away from TIP funding for non-incarcerated students. An early calculation showed that fewer than 3% of inmates will be eligible for the program due to its age restrictions, he said.

The 2020 budget appropriates $64.3 million to TIP, which is administered by the Michigan Department of Treasury.

“We don’t see paying incarcerated students as having a large impact on the program’s expenditures,” Ron Leix, a Treasury Department spokesman, said in an email.

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Qualified incarcerated students can work with participating colleges and universities to begin claiming their benefits.

TIP requires that students apply before Aug. 31 of the school year in which they graduate from high school or earn their GED certificate. Applicants must graduate from high school or complete their GED before age 20, and their eligibility ends six years later.

Three Michigan schools — Delta College, Jackson College and Mott Community College — offer courses to students in prison through the federal Second Chance Pell pilot, which allows 65 schools across the country to experiment in awarding Pell grants to incarcerated students. A provision of the 1994 federal crime bill made inmates ineligible for Pell grants, and advocates for prison education are pushing Congress to overturn that ban.

Colleges also offer courses to inmates in-person and via the mail with funding from private sponsorships and grants. In all, a little more than 700 inmates within the Michigan Department of Corrections are enrolled in post-secondary education courses.

The chance to pursue an education in prison has been "life-changing" for the Pell grant pilot participants at Saginaw Correctional Facility, said Virginia Przygocki, dean of career education and learning partnerships for Delta College.

The first cohort graduated last week with associate’s degrees in business studies. Several of the 10 graduates will be released from prison in the coming months and are talking about their futures.

"Watching them develop through the program, they became much more confident. They began to realize the value of the education that they were receiving," Przygocki said. "They were kind of leaving the life they led behind."

Przygocki said she thinks the TIP financial aid will motivate more incarcerated individuals to complete their GED and pursue a college education, whether that's in prison or after their release.

TIP applications can be completed online at www.michigan.gov/missg or by calling the 1-888-447-2687.

Angie Jackson covers the challenges of formerly incarcerated citizens as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Click here to support her work. Contact Angie: ajackson@freepress.com; 313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter: @AngieJackson23