Sentiment among Maryland lawmakers to abolish the shameful legislative scholarship program appears strong and unstoppable -- in the House of Delegates. The tough nut to crack continues to be the state Senate, whose members control 80 percent of the $8.5 million taxpayer-funded kitty to be distributed to college students this year.
This is the 127-year-program, the only one of its kind in the nation, that allows delegates and senators to make personal awards of public dollars in the name of advancing academic careers. No doubt some students are helped by these scholarships. But far too many of the grants go to the children of friends, associates and supporters of legislators. In certain cases, awards have gone to members of the pols' families, including their own children.
The abuses have been well-documented. For example, in fiscal 1990, the lawmakers gave away $572,000 in scholarships to 1,200 students with no financial need. The average annual senatorial award from a recent three-year period was a paltry $572, underscoring the fact that legislators stretch the funds to cover as many grateful recipients as possible. Non-white students have received less aid from the legislative program than they have from the state's general, need-based scholarship fund, even while black lawmakers have claimed the legislative program helps them see personally to the desires of minority students. And on and on.
Such findings have led more and more legislators to call for abolition of this embarrassing program. It's virtually dead in the House, where bills to get lawmakers out of the scholarship business will be heard next week. Yet many senators greedily cling to their precious political perk. Some of them have discussed reforms along the lines of allowing each senator to name a committee that would make the awards. However, that's just what a number of legislators already do. No "reform" will be acceptable unless it takes all control of the scholarships out of the lawmakers' hands and gives it to the State Scholarship Administration.
There is hope in the numerous freshmen senators on record opposing the program -- six of them form a majority on the panel considering scholarship proposals. But will we see a rerun of last year's heavy-handed maneuver by Chairman Clarence W. Blount Baltimore, who, on orders from Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, prevented the panel from even voting on an anti-scholarship bill? Mr. Miller and Mr. Blount must avoid repeating that undistinguished performance and acknowledge the growing sentiment that the demise of the scholarship scam is long overdue.