The newest attack on the Promise Scholarship February 28, 2008
This legislative session should be called the “Year of the Attack on the Promise Scholarship.”
First, you had Manchin’s hairbrained idea to require all Promise Scholars to work in the state, a mini-labor camp if you will, and now you have the ALMOST AS SILLY requirement that each Promise Scholar have an “internship” during the summers of their college years.
Huh?
An internship?
First, let’s punch gaping holes through this. Just off the top of my head, I can think of multiple problems.
What is you work at your family business each summer? My guess is that family businesses aren’t going to fall under the category of “internship” if it is in an unrelated field.
Many “internships” are unpaid. For instance, my daughter is currently doing an unpaid internship in Morgantown. MOST college students simply can’t afford to state a summer of unpaid work, especially if those students have other family obligations.
The bill gives an exception if you can’t find an internship in your field. Who in the world is going to police that one? What if there are, but the field is so competitive you can’t land one. You’ll need another government agency just to figure out the exemptions.
Silly.
This bill was a sleeper that made it’s way through the Senate. In fact, up until the very time to vote on it, my guess is the vast majority of the Senate had no idea what was in the bill.
A few of us voted against, but this was slipped in while the mega Promise Scholarship change was exploding like the Hindenberg in the House of Delegates.
Here’s hoping the House puts a stop to this ridiculous requirement before we make our Promise scholars once again just through hoops to keep what they earned.
The full article from the Martinsburg Journal is below.
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Intern rule eyed for PROMISE; Scholarship students may have to complete work program to keep funds
CHARLESTON — Internships could soon be a requirement for all students who receive West Virginia’s PROMISE Scholarship, following a vote by the state Senate on Monday to approve a bill that aims to set up an internship program for the recipients.
If the measure receives a second approval from the House of Delegates, students who receive the scholarship must register with Workforce West Virginia One Stop Centers, where they will be matched with internships and work programs. If a position is available in a student’s field, he or she would be required to complete the internship to retain the scholarship.
Students graduating from high school in 2009 would be the first class to be affected by the legislation.
Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, who sponsored the bill, said the majority of the internships would likely be paid, and that students could complete them during the school year, or while on summer break. The bill, he said, is different from a proposal made during a recent state address by Gov. Joe Manchin, which would have required that scholarship recipients take a job in West Virginia after completing their degree.
“Once they graduate, they’re free to go,” Unger said, adding that the plan is a way to give students job skills and work experience they can place on their resume, and it could serve as a way to introduce students to companies they could then work for after graduation.
The measure was approved by a 27-6 vote on Monday, with Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, the only legislator from the Eastern Panhandle who did not support it.
In an interview later that day, Barnes said he opposed attempts to place restrictions on the PROMISE Scholarship.
Barnes said the program, established under Gov. Bob Wise, uses some of West Virginia’s gambling revenues to help high school students who have earned good grades finance their college education, regardless of their family’s income level. It serves as an assurance to students that if they work hard they will be able to afford to go to college.
“That was the promise. That’s why it’s called the PROMISE,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, the promise was a promise. There were no strings attached.”
Barnes, who said he is not in favor of the internship program because it fails to take into account other jobs that students might already have planned, was also against Manchin’s requirement that scholarship recipients take jobs in the state after graduation because it did not consider the fact that there might not be jobs available for recent college graduates.
Manchin’s spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said the proposal was withdrawn as legislation this year and is slated for additional study. She said the governor’s proposal was was raised to help draw attention to the increased funding the scholarship is continuing to require.
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16 Responses to “The newest attack on the Promise Scholarship”
You know, I visited a country in 1974 which had this system in one form or another for several hundred years.
The country was the former Soviet Union of Socialist Republics (Russia). They called the system SERFDOM. It was still in effect in 1974 as you had to have an internal passport to travel outside your hometown.
Of course, WV closely resembles that failed system in many aspects. We are getting closer and closer every day when the wizards who rule speak from the legislature.
There already was a PROMISE scholarship program.
Businesses and agencies could opt to offer their summer opportunities (paid or unpaid) and students could apply. This would just make it mandatory for a student to accept anything in his or her field, I guess. Maybe the legislature needs to know that it’s okay to take no action, rather than making stupid decisions just for show.
I have to agree with you on this one. This is a bad idea. Paid internships are often hard to find, and many students can’t afford to work unpaid for an entire summer. Internships in general are hard to find in WV, not much different than jobs.
I would like to see The PROMISE Scholarship left alone! If the Legislature wants to change the levels of GPA and ACT/SAT test scores, making them higher, that will make students realize they will have to work even harder. However, it will continue to eliminate good students from receiving scholarship money. I work each year with numerous scholarships, including The PROMISE, and The PROMISE is the only scholarship many students have a chance to receive.
The first year The PROMISE was given, our Legislature did not have enough money to fund what they gave out in scholarships. It was a poor way to start the scholarship program. I’m sure there were many students in The PROMISE beginning years who wasted their scholarship money. So, I understand why the Governor and Legislature might want to increase the requirements. I just don’t want to see good, average students cut out of a chance to receive assistance. I don’t believe a student should be made to remain in our State after graduation from college nor do I think a student should be made to serve an internship. However, I could agree with making the scholarship a 80/20 option; that being, a student doesn’t have to repay 80% of the scholarship monies, while the student would be obligated to repay the State 20%, without interest, 2 to 4 years after graduation/drop out of college. After 4 years the student would be required to repay the 20% in monthly payments with interest accruing at the rate of 2 or 3 percent. I hope that those who are working toward changes for The PROMISE are talking to the folks who are familiar with its history. Too much of the time changes are made by people who don’t know enough about the subject to render a fair decision. A little common sense can go a long way!
Well, this is but another in a long line of affronts to the thinking WVian. Want more?
-legislative pay raises (a bill which is sailing right on through, by the way)
-talking on cellphones while driving to be made illegal: this in itself is fine and MUCH NEEDED, however, the bill exempts those driving state vehicles. WHY??
Back to the Promise Scholarship: if legislators don’t want these graduates leaving WV, how about doing what’s necessary to attract and keep new business investment like tax cuts & elimination and tort reform?? HELLO??
How many children does John Unger have? How many in college? I have one at WVU and two on their way there.My friends son is wanting to be a Marine biologist…will he have to intern at Captain D’S? (LOL)
My daughter is studying to be an international attorney. She speaks chinese among other languages. There is not a law school in West Virginia that specilizes in International law so she will have to go elsewhere to complete her degree. Then her career will have to be based elsewhere due to demand and money.
We appreciate the Promise scholarship and the state for it. But, our Promise envelope came with a certificate and not a boomerang and if it ever does it will be refused.
I certainly pay enough taxes and my children and I certainly do enough volunteer work to have earned the gift of Promise. We thank other tax payers like us for it!
Do we not have immediate suggestions for our state and not ones that would possibly occur in 4-5 years when our kids graduate?
I would like to think we do!
Keep up the great work Vic!
Consideration must be given as to the purpose of the Promise Scholarship program in the first place. Vision Shared, the paid for consultant plan for WV’s future says that for most of the jobs in our future (10-30 yrs out) one only needs a H.S. diploma and/or 2 yrs post High School education. If this is true, and I believe it is, why are we investing so many $ in this program which goes mostly to those who can afford to pay for college. Quit looking for reasons to limit kids futures. If you want to make changes to Promise Scholarship then make it more needs based and limit the program. We can’t and don’t want to restrict our kids futures. Besides many would stay if there were jobs. So help create an environment where employers (not just lawyers) will come to and expand in WV.
I’d like to see it eliminated completely.
Doug is correct!!! If the jobs in the future require 2 year degrees why support the 4 year degrees? The governor needs to look at the internship new teachers are required to do(student teaching). After the students complete this and before they graduate they are offered jobs with a signing bonus to relocate to another state. West Virginia schools offer them a chance to maybe become a sub, work for a couple years, then get hired, if lucky. Our elected officals need to look at the big picture and move into the 21st century.
To do this right the colleges/universities need to be set up with a Co-op program like Drexel University has in Philadelphia. Program takes 5 years but 2 of these 5 years are working in industry
and the jobs are paid. Doubt if WV has the industrial base to do this. I side with Oliverio. Regards.
A number of students have to go to summer school to take courses over in order to keep the grade point average they need to keep the Promise Scholarship.
I agree with Ray. It is not the job of the state to pay for college educations for anyone. I disagree with Doug regarding a means test (means tests are the Democrats way of income redistribution).
When you think about it, these scholarships were the carrot that the legislature used to get us to accept all of these “Hot Spots”. We are financing the advanced education of our children by using gambling profits which are primarily generated by people in the lower income brackets who cannot afford it. This is a really bad idea.
The kids will appreciate their education more and work harder at it if they have to pay their own way. The Promise Scholarship is a gift, and as such it helps nurture the attitude that “The world owes me a living”.
This is just another example of Quinn’s law, that liberalism invariably leads to the exact opposite of its intended result. How about we taxpayers (oops, I meant, the government) stop paying for things that aren’t our concern. The Promise Scholarship is just another form of welfare and, like all of those welfare programs before it, will fail.
Means test recipients.
Somebody use some common sense PLEASE !
Also, how about means testing Legislators as to how much of that $ 20,000 salary they really need.
So, the hacks that are in the Legislature for the money and benefits will get the full $ 20K and the remaining 90 % that are rich ambulance chasing trial lawyers won’t burden us peon taxpayers anymore with salary payments they don;t need.
Makes too much sense don’t it ?
So let me get this rightm Vic? We bankroll the college education of the middle class who can actually achieve the ACT/SAT scores necessary. Remember the median household income of Promise recipients is approximately $71,000. These students are afraid of student loans. This is the reality of the working poor desiring an education. Once these students graduate with a degree in recrational arts and fashion merchandising they will take the tax payer dollars invested in their education out of state. This is economic development? We are paying for an education of West Virginians so they can become productive taxpayers in other states and compete with WV industry?
I guess the only way the working poor have a chance at an education is through enlistment. Now that’s commitment.
This state always references the HOPE Scholarship in Georgia, but even it has a needs-based requirement which is rarely mentioned.