March 8, 2010
Dear Friends ~
I want to share with you the results of my recent survey regarding the future of the Illinois General Assembly Scholarships.
I have to say that I am surprised with the results, as I expected there to be a clear preference throughout the district regarding the fate of the scholarship program. However, as you can see from the results below, this does not seem to be the case.
When the time comes for me to make a decision on this issue, I will continue to reach out to you for guidance and support.
As always, thank you for your input, and please continue to stay in touch!
Sincerely,
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SURVEY RESULTS
Should the Illinois General Assembly Scholarship Program be reformed and continue to be offered by state legislators?
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTS I strongly believe it should be based on financial need.
J.H., Mount Prospect
Each legislative district should offer to two scholarships based on residency in the district, recipient has to attend a State of Illinois Public University, enroll in the scholarship program between Nov.1 -March 31st, and based on their ACT writing score. M.B., Deerfield
I think if it is well managed and its public announcement is wider than it appears then it should continue. As you are aware there are many great students in our district that would be eligible but they need to know about it.
T.S., Northbrook Though I would very much like to see the program continue, for the sake of the neediest of the state's students, I'll understand completely if that does not happen. A few bad apples always seem to find ways to spoil it for the rest of the group. D.A., Mount Prospect
Certainly, nobody should abuse the scholarships, and the idea that people wealthy enough to make significant *non-tax deductable* contributions are eligible is a little scary. This is one area of education that should be free from the privilege awarded to the wealthy. Our colleges should be bastions of merit; if these scholarships are handled correctly, they can help further that goal. T.M., Lake Forest
[Years ago,] I was able to secure a General Assembly Scholarship from my local state representative. [P]lease be assured that it made a tremendous difference in my life. My family could not afford college -- four of my siblings never attended-- and the GA Scholarship allowed me to attend the University of Illinois free of tuition fees. In fact, I believe that I would not be in my position today without the help of a General Assembly Scholarship. H.G., Highwood
It is my opinion that these scholarships should be eliminated, along with all other expenditures that are at the discretion of individual legislatures without full legislative vote and funding. The scholarships seem to me to be a very expensive unfunded mandate upon the state universities that are already underfunded by the legislature. My stand is against unfunded mandates, and for full funding of the state's commitment to its universities. J.W., Northbrook As long as Mike Madigan and John Cullerton remain in
leadership reform is just an exercise in futility and will undoubtedly be
subverted for political power/gain. Thus until and unless there is new
leadership in the state legislature, the program should be eliminated.
D.M., Mount Prospect I hate to see any scholarship program eliminated
completely, as the beneficiaries are our kids. Years ago, my son received
one of those scholarships from Sen. Bill Peterson when he was at SIU, and it
helped a lot, as at the time my two daughters were still in college.
I'd like to see the program continued with very clear criteria (grades,
leadership ability, etc.) but with better oversight.
B.S., Deerfield If the senate bill was designed to utilize the same
procedures you have in place for all officials the use of this program to
help otherwise underserved students would make sense. The practices in place in
many districts is appalling but unfortunately not surprising. The question left
is the financial ramifications of the practice and whether the same students
might have a different avenue to financial aid without this particular program?
T.Y., Lake Bluff Unfortunately, there was too much corruption with this
activity.
B.C., Deerfield My personal opinion is get rid of the program altogether. I
know education is expensive but my generation worked, went to school where you
lived and took loans if necessary. I was one of a few that went away to school
for part of my education. If the money is used for education lower the tuition
for all students.
L.P.
Scholarships are exceedingly important to help families improve themselves. E.G., Des Plaines
I think that the program should be continued, but suggest that in awarding your scholarships, financial need be the focal point. You mentioned that you gave a scholarship to a homeless student. That is a fabulous use of your discretion. On the other hand, and while I certainly don't know my neighbors' full financial situation, a scholarship was awarded (I'm not sure whether it was by you or Karen) to the daughter of a neighbor who lives in a house that must be worth over $700,000. As stated above, I certainly don't know my neighbors' full financial picture, but there must be other deserving candidates with greater financial needs. D.M., Highland Park Thank you for giving us an opportunity to respond to the
scholarship issue facing Illinois
legislators. We are not opposed to private organizations providing
scholarships or even some public entities willing to do so. However, no
matter how the scholarship statute is rewritten there will always be some
lawmakers who will find ways to circumvent the system. The need for scrutiny of
the awarding of scholarships will just add to the cost of operating state
government. Instead, legislators have enough to do, and necessary
work isn't always getting done, so scholarships should be removed from the
job responsibilities of legislators. And no doubt some constituents will
argue that taxpayers money should not be used for public officials to offer
scholarships.
E.S. and S.S., Glenview These scholarships are funded, if I understand correctly, by
taxpayer dollars. I like the idea of making sure any student who receives
such a scholarship has been by an Illinois
State school, and has
indicated a preference to attend.
I also like the idea of one-year, renewable scholarships. If the qualifications that earned the scholarship are not maintained, the scholarship is pulled. M.G., Lake Forest I expressed my opinion in the survey which was to junk it.
Continuing the program constitutes an occasion of sin for many of the
party faithful.
V.S., Lake Forest
I have always been a proponent of financial assistance for higher education to those in need. However, the General Assembly Scholarship Program, as it stands, does open itself to abuse. For this reason, if it continues, I would like to see provisions made for parents (or the assemblyperson!) to be held accountable for the amount of tuition waived if it is later found to have be made based on political favoritism.
Another concern I have is that the scholarships themselves, awarded in the form
of a waiver, financially hurt the educational institutions. It represents
tuition dollars not collected by the school. Given the dire straits many of our
state schools are in right now, I wonder if this isn't another reason to
discontinue this kind of scholarship award. Right now, it seems to us that so much money is needed for
so much and that the legislature is so strapped for cash that these
scholarships might be redundant, at least until sometime when fiscal affairs
are in order. Supporting university scholarship programs might be a better way
to go.
L.B. and D.B., Highland Park I think the program is very worthwhile, but it is most
unfortunate that we must always assume "corruption" when
implementing any program. In this day and age, there needs to be
"oversight" on everything and everybody. Abusive legislators
give all legislators a bad name, just as abusive school administrators and
teachers give all administrators and teachers a bad name. This is
particularly true with pension issues. A few bad apples are the ones who
get media attention and publicity and ruin it for the rest of us.
What is so terrible about getting a moderate pension that you have paid for and
earned? Thanks for listening.
J.S. There has been so much dishonesty in the past that I believe
scholarships can best be handled by the universities. All those various
scholarship by state legislators don't pass the smell test. The public and myself
are very skeptical of the abuse of power that we have seen.
N.G., Highland Park Having served on your selection committee, I would encourage
you to continue to support the program. I thoroughly enjoyed the
experience and would note that it was very objective as none of us knew the
candidates.
F.T., Glenview I think your are giving the scholarships out fairly, but I can't
say anything about the other Legislators. If scholarships are to be given out, it
should be on a financial need basis only. This would help students who are
academically able but can't afford the tuition. Sometimes students can't get Pell
grants or other scholarships as they may not be “A” students but are a fairly
good student and really want an education but can't afford to pay the fees.
B.S., Des Plaines I feel that until our huge deficit has been lowered
(hopefully, with spending freezes and a small rise in the income tax rate), all
"perks," no matter how worthy, should be suspended. Once our
state is once again on a sane financial footing, we could and should readdress
the issue. Of course, our young people deserve as much public support as
is possible--within reason--as they pursue higher education.
J.A., Glencoe I am in favor of eliminating the scholarships. We
just can't afford it any more. You need to cut spending and this is a
small gesture of what the General Assembly needs to due to start balancing
the budget. If we can't cut this little item, how can we ever expect
to reduce entitlements and so many of the other items that need to be
reduced to balance our budget? You need to cut spending before
you consider raising taxes.
P.C., Highland Park In a state as corrupt as Illinois, this kind of program is just too
ripe for abuse. Secondly, the state can ill-afford this program. Can
it... now. If anything needs reforming, start with the funding of
pensions. If you want to do something productive regarding higher
education, get Illinois into the reciprocity
program that many other Midwest states belong to -- if you live in Wisconsin, you can go to University of Minnesota
and pay in-state tuition costs, and vice-versa. Why doesn't Illinois participate?
B.G., Mount Prospect I guess there are always going to be some that abuse the
program but putting in the controls and rules you outlined will go a long way
to minimize them. It would be more criminal to end the program that undoubtedly
has helped very many families such as mine, and, hopefully, these outweigh
those who have abused the program.
K.B., Des Plaines The Chicago Tribune pointed out today that proposed reforms
are toothless and have no enforcement mechanism. I'm hesitant to kill
this program entirely (I myself received such a scholarship from my State
Representative), but there needs to be a way to enforce the provisions of the
proposed reforms.
P.B., Deerfield My feelings regarding the program are that if all member of
the Illinois General Assembly administered the program in the manner in which
you do, the program should continue. However, abuses of the program have
been and are ongoing in our state. Corruption and abuse of the program,
in addition to being inappropriate, is another black eye for Illinois,
a state that is already the laughing stock of most of the rest of America.
Because of this, I feel that we need to “cut deeply” if we are going to
improve our reputation via positive actions. I fear that just doing only
revisions in the program will still leave some openings for unintended
consequences that would provide opportunities for General Assembly members to
“game” the system again.
Hence, my recommendation is to close down the program. H.W., Northbrook I believe there is value in the state scholarship
program. However, I do believe that not only should these scholarships
not be allowed to families who have made political contributions state
legislators, I firmly believe that those receiving the scholarships demonstrate
financial need for such assistance. The item of financial need has not
appeared anywhere in any of the discussions of this issue which I have
read. If scholarships were awarded to students whose families were able
to make contributions to state legislators, perhaps these students were not
financially needy.
T.T., Lake Bluff I recommend deleting the program until the state Budget gets under control. Let the state schools administer aid grants for now. K.B., Lake Bluff | ||||||||||||||||||||||||