Romney's scholarship plan favors richer school districts | Boston Globe

[Ediacara]

Romney's scholarship plan favors richer school districts
Suburban whites would largely be tuition winners

By Anand Vaishnav and
Bill Dedman, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, 3/7/2004

A scholarship proposal that Governor Mitt Romney is touting to help working-class families would give the edge to richer school districts, a Globe analysis shows.

Romney's Adams Scholarship program, which he announced during his State of the State address in January, would award free public college tuition to the top quarter of MCAS scorers. Because the scholarship selection would rest solely on test scores and because wealthier students tend to score higher, the students most likely to qualify would need the help the least.

The districts with the largest share of winners under Romney's proposal are overwhelmingly affluent, suburban, and white, according to the Globe's review of MCAS scores for this year's junior class.

Christy Zweig, a junior at Dover-Sherborn Regional High School, would be a shoo-in for the scholarship. But Zweig, who attends school in one of the state's wealthiest school districts, is not even considering attending a Massachusetts public university. At Dover-Sherborn, where the median family income is $148,000, two out of three juniors would qualify.

More at the Boston Globe

[boobooday]

1. But you know

If you help those rich kids, maybe someday they will hire the poor kids who didn't get scholarships to clean their toilets!

It is our great meritocracy at work!

http://www.wgoeshome.com

[gristy]

2. I remember getting a little $$ from doing well on some exam in NYS

I don't remember what the program was, but it was not need-based. Everyone got the same amount regardless of income. This seemed fine with me, but only because the amount wasn't very much. To award the top 25% scorers "free public college tuition" is way over the top. To not scale these awards based on need is just not right.

[Nikia]

3. It is still good for high achieving poor students

Not all poor students do poorly on tests. It provides an incentive for poor students who perhaps thought that they couldn't afford college. Top 25% is less of an achievement than students would need to achieve on the SAT to go to many private competitive colleges with large endowments that have the resources to offer large need based scholarships. Top 25% is a lot of students. I don't know how common such programs are. For example in Ohio, I was offered free tuition at a community college which I had expressed no interest in on the basis of my grades and test scores.

[bicentennial_baby]

4. Western MA gets screwed again

Too bad, so sad Spfld. and Holyoke! :mad: Hadley must be feelin good though.