State rep blasts taxpayer-funded financial-aid sweepstakes

A taxpayer-funded sweepstakes that encourage students to fill out a Free Application for Student Aid is a waste of public money, according to a state House representative.

The 2025 Michigan budget allocates $980,000 for the ‘Ticket to Tuition Sweepstakes,’ Gov. Whitmer promoted April 16. The governor is holding out a chance to share in a purse of $1 million in prizes in her effort to get all students to seek public assistance by filling out the student aid form known commonly as FAFSA.

Whitmer’s tweet included three checked boxes with instructions. “Fill out your FAFSA, Tell a friend to do the same, Enter to win up to $1 million in prizes.”

A webpage for the contest reads in part: “Ten students will win $50,000 and 40 students will win $10,000 cash in a Michigan Education Savings Program account. That’s money that can be used for tuition at a community college, university or career training program, as well as room and board, living expenses and more!”

Money awarded from the contest would flow to the winner’s education savings plan.

The state’s higher education department contracted with the Michigan College Action Network to implement the sweepstakes, Ryan Fewins-Bliss, executive director of the network, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in an email. The network is a nonprofit that aims to increase access to college enrollment.

The financial aid form determines whether a student is eligible for aid but is not itself an application for a student loan, Fewins-Bliss added.

Rep. Brad Paquette, a Republican from Niles, told Michigan Capitol Confidential in a text message that 50% of students who receive a Pell grant — a separate program operated by the U.S. government — do not finish college. Paquette is on the Michigan House Education and Workforce Committee.

“FAFSA sweepstakes money should reimburse the kids who are coerced into college for free money and are set up to fail,” said Paquette.

Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown, introduced Senate Bill 463 in 2023, which would have required high school students to complete the financial aid form if they wanted to graduate. School districts would have faced increased costs as a result of the mandate, Senate Fiscal Agency said, and critics said the requirement would violate families’ financial privacy. Camilleri's bill died at the end of the last legislative term.

“A student’s graduation from high school should in no way be contingent upon their ability to complete a form for financial aid,” said Molly Macek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Dollars spent on the sweepstakes or on encouraging high school students to complete a financial aid form could be better spent, Macek told CapCon in an email. She suggested that schools teach college-bound students the financial implications of borrowing money to subsidize their college tuition, which will likely only increase over time.

In March 2024, there was a 40% decrease in the number of students who completed the student aid form, according to the National College Attainment Network.