Dear Editor,

I found the Detroit News story on the Governor’s plan to provide free tuition to frontline workers to be very interesting.
According to the information, 625,000 workers are eligible and 60,000 have already applied.
The only funding mentioned is $24 million.
Even if only the 60,000 are approved for this funding, the available amount is only $400 per person.
If half of the eligible recipients (312,000) are granted funding it only amounts to $77 per person.
Technical training and college education cost much, much more than these amounts.
If the education costs are only $5,000 per year for 60,000 students, the total money required would be $300 million and ten times that ($3 billion) for all eligible workers.
The total budget for Michigan in 2019 was $62 billion.
I believe the Governor needs to reveal how she plans to fund this major expenditure without cutting other programs.
The Governor has also failed to explain how the education system can expand to handle 300,000 to 600,000 new students or what are acceptable education fields of study (engineering, basket weaving, etc.) to insure that the recipient has appropriate skills to meet the job market.
The Governor has once again taken the victory lap without proper preparation for the race.

Sincerely,
Tom Breneiser
Clarkston