This is totally interesting point. The experiment has to be seen as the 18 year time-frame. How many Parents can rationally expect 18 years in Job? That type of career is getting further away from the norm, it seems
The interesting bit comes when you're thinking about investing, say to build a gas station or a wallmart, knowing that the population will be relatively stable is an incentive.
They don't constrain where the kids go, they can go to any school that they are accepted to AFAICT from the article. So some schools might recruit them knowing they won't need financial aid.
It is a fascinating experiment in so many ways.
So no free rides to Harvard... or Ohio State.
Edit: I didn't mean to imply that Michigan has bad schools. Simply noting that this offer requires families to set up roots in the town and it also requires that the students go to college in state. Not saying it's a positive or negative, just a two-fold geographic limitation designed to stimulate the local and state economies.
I never felt needy for options while looking at universities in the state of Michigan.
More seriously though, since daughter #3 is college shopping, we've been talking about various colleges. Michigan has a lot of great schools, for a variety of students and for a variety of majors. So it's not a 'limit' in any sense of the word.