Continuing its coverage of how politics have influenced college admissions in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports that scholarships that state legislators are permitted to give out as a perk of the job often go to the children of their political supporters.
Each legislator gets to hand out the equivalent of two four-year scholarships each year — good for all tuition and fees — that can be left intact or divided into as many as eight one-year awards. The Tribune reports that the lawmakers last year distributed 1,509 scholarships worth a total of $12.5-million. In the meantime, they slashed support for other college grants.
B. Joseph White announced this week that he would step down in December as president of the three-campus University of Illinois system in the wake of the Tribune’s series of reports. He has denied any wrongdoing.
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One Response to Illinois Lawmakers Doled Out Scholarships to Political Supporters
lcrandal - September 30, 2009 at 10:16 am
These scholarships are much more of a perversion of a merit-based system than the admissions policies that have garnered so much news. Admitting someone not capable of academic success just provides them an opportunity to fail. Diverting scholarship funds to the children of political supporters undermines the very notion of equity in the public higher education system. If President White was forced to resign over this, so should the legislature.