This lame duck isn’t done fighting yet.

On Monday, Governor Jennifer Granholm stopped by Eastern Michigan University to rally for the restoration of the Michigan Promise Scholarship. For those from out of state and/or people that have become confused during the battle for funding, you can read about the scholarship and its importance for Michigan students here.

Since they were apparently oblivious to the irony of the scholarship’s name, the senate Republicans proposed cutting the scholarship. Governor Granholm signed the budget despite the exclusion of the Promise, but she insists that funding can still be restored if students pressure their legislators.

Enter: the rally at Eastern Michigan University on Monday morning.

The event kicked off with a few speeches about the importance of the promise for students, their families, and for universities as they seek top students faced with financial obstacles. It was then turned over to students, who provided testimonies about their personal need for the promise. It was mostly Eastern students, but they did include one token Michigan student, just to show everyone that we’re not all totally perfect.

Their stories collectively seemed like an accurate representations of the struggles for in-state Michigan college students: family income is too high for federal aid, but not nearly enough to cover college costs; a recently laid-off parent, leaving the family’s finances in disarray; an unpaid balance in a student account, once filled by the promise but now threatening the student’s ability to return next year.

Governor Granholm justified her support for the Promise Scholarship by viewing job creation through the lens of education. She named 4 specific economic areas which experts have said Michigan is uniquely positioned to expand. They are Tourism, Green Energy Manufacturing, Robotics and Nanotech, and Film. When the governor goes out to recruit these businesses to come to Michigan, they want to know one thing: does Michigan have a healthy university system that will provide them a jobs “pipeline?”

It truly was disappointing to see the look on the Governor’s face as she discussed the state of education in Michigan. “We were there, we had put our stake in the ground, we had set ourselves up for success with the Michigan Promise, Michigan’s first universal scholarship.” Yet Republicans in the State Senate managed to undo all of the gains that were won through long and tedious work in one fell swoop.

The fact is, we can still get the Promise back, but unless we make changes to ensure it will not be taken away again, we will be participating in an act of futility. One study that was released at a recent University of Michigan economic forum  said that by 2017 Michigan will be shouldered with annual budget deficits of 10 billion dollars. Even if we manage to get the Promise reinstated into the FY 2010 budget, or even if we prevail in the next budget battle, what do you think will be the first thing to go in 2017 when we have to cut like we’ve never cut before?

Of course, this places a greater burden on us: a burden to require from our legislators. We cannot be satisfied by a yearly balanced budget, especially if it looks like this year’s. We must turn our focus to the future and take steps to make funding vital programs much easier. We must adopt comprehensive tax reform. If we can do our best to tell lawmakers that we are no longer happy with stop-gap measures, then the Promise will be kept year, after year, after year.