The Kalamazoo Promise

             One of the most pressing problems faced by the American education system is getting children to not only graduate high school, but to attend college as well.  The article, “The Tuition Jackpot”, featured in the New York Times Magazine and written by Ted C. Fishman, describes how one community attempted to tackle this particular problem.  Ted Fishman is a veteran journalist who has written pieces for publications such as National Geographic and USA Today.  The New York Times Magazine is published weekly as a supplement to The New York Times.  In 2005, a group of anonymous donors declared that they had create a fund known as the Kalamazoo Promise, in which every student who graduated from high school in Kalamazoo, Michigan would be given a free college education.  By requiring that students remain in the district in order to receive funding, the Promise hopes to create a generation of innovative workers to rebuild a town that has lost 16,000 jobs since 2007.  This article was written in order to emphasize the importance of secondary education in America and to report on how certain strategies to improve college enrollment rates have fared.  The author conveyed this message to the readers of The New York Times Magazine primarily through the use of logos.  For example, he includes the statistic that 90% of Kalamazoo students who graduated in 2012 are now enrolled in college in order to indicate the success of the program.  Ultimately, I believe the author accomplished his purpose because the text was easily accessible for the average reader, yet it was well supported with statistical evidence.