21st Century Scholars Act -- Would you support this bill on a Nat'l level?

21st Century Scholars Act in 1992, legislation which says that every child growing up in Indiana who is eligible for the free lunch program in a public school, graduates from high school with passing grades, and signs a pledge not to experiment with illegal drugs, is entitled to a full college scholarship to a public university of his or her choice.


By the way, Sen. Evan Bayh signed this piece of legislation into law back in 1992 while serving as Governor of Indiana.

I don't see why a drug conviction should exempt one from financial aid/public housing and lord knows what else when a murder conviction won't.

But really the need cutoff needs to be higher than the national school lunch program. At least around here there's a huge disparity between poverty level and what it takes to pay for school.

I attend an average public University located in downtown Baltimore. I cant imagine how much its going to cost for grad school (MBA). Probably over 50,000 if I get into any of my target schools.

really, why limit it? Why not simply state that every child who graduates
from high school with, say, a 3.0+ GPA is entitled to a full college scholarship
at a public university of his/her choice, OR to a professional certification
program at the community college of their choice?

Not that this will ever happen. It's so much more worthwhile to
build prisons. :sarcasm:

equivalent to the cost of four years at a public university and let them spend it on any acredited school they want. That way if a CA kid really wants to blow it all on thier first year at Stanford and be on the hook for the other three, they can. Or they can do thier first two years at community college, transfer to a state uni, and not have to pay much to get thier masters.

from what I've seen it will be a horrific waste of maney and talent if academic standards are not kept up. And I'm not in the least supporting Shrub's NCLB as way of keepiong the standards high.

For years, the City Colleges of NY accepted any city resident who had the requisite combination of SAT's and grade average. The tuition was free, and if you couldn't get into a four-year college, the community colleges let you work it out and see if you had the stuff to get into a four-year college.

I went to City, Ed Koch went to City, Colin Powell went to City, and many others I can't remember offhand went to CCNY, Hunter, Queens and Brooklyn colleges. We had a higher percentage of our graduates go on to graduate degrees than Harvard. The schools were set up for the bright immigrants who populated NYC, but had no money for school, and were tough to get into and tougher to stay in. But, they were free, and damn good. And thousands of poor kids got their education there.

So, what happened? It was decided that ALL city high school graduates deserved a college education on the city's nickel. Soon enough, more colleges were built, the city went broke, tuition started and keeps going sky high.

Academic standards? Don't even think about it. Some of them still manage some quality, but too many are down on the bottom now.

For many kids, the hope of college is a chimera. We need auto mechanics, not more (younameit) Studies grads. Education is never a bad thing, and perhaps it would be nice if every kid in the US could get education beyond high school, but why kill off the wood and auto shop courses and then tell average kids how much they'll make as English majors?

These days you need a solid tech background to work on modern engines, read blueprints, desing in CAD, etc...

They're always complaining about welfare queens. This program would give children from poor backgrounds the opportunity to bust out and make somethign of themselves.