Michigan Removes 30,000 College Students From Food Stamp Program

In an effort to cut costs and balance Michigan’s state budget, Human Services Director Maura Corrigan has removed an estimated 30,000 college students from the state's food stamp program.

"Maybe (students) could go get a part-time job — that's what I did," said Corrigan, a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court in a recent story from The Detroit News.”

For the most part, college students are not eligible for food stamps under federal rules. But under former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration, attending college alone qualified people for food assistance.

But at the direction of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, Corrigan is making it clear that the state can no longer sustain the costs involved in handing out food stamps to college students.

“We want to encourage people to be self-sufficient, not to be dependent on the government,” she said.

According to The Detroit News, “Corrigan...has also ordered administrators to start looking at applicants' assets, not just their income. That move follows an uproar after it was revealed Leroy Fick of Auburn remained eligible for food stamps and continued using them after he won $2 million in the state lottery TV show ‘Make Me Rich!’ in June 2010.”

Starting Oct. 1, assets will also be considered in determining eligibility for new applicants. The assets of existing food stamp recipients will also be examined as their cases are re-evaluated every six months.

Of course, there are opponents to Corrigan's decision.

"Students should be focusing on their education, not whether or not they'll be able to eat dinner or whether they can manage to find a job and balance it on top of their studies," said Kayla Neff, a 19-year-old Spanish and computer science student at Central Michigan University, in a Friday email interview from Mount Pleasant.

"A more nuanced approach would have been more humane," said director of the Michigan State University Student Food Bank Nate Smith-Tyge. "This sort of carte blanche decision is going to adversely affect people who really needed it. At what cost does it eliminate some abuse?"

The move seems a good first step towards the type of fiscal responsibility Michigan desperately needs. Not only did it save $75 million, but it also corrected a long-standing mistake.