What's wrong with this picture? The Sun's front page carries headlines touting lower tuition for illegal immigrants ("O'Malley signs tuition break," May 11) and a cut in college scholarships ("Seniors stunned by Md. scholarship cuts").

In other words, our best and the brightest students, all legal citizens, those that would have qualified for the Maryland Distinguished Scholar Award, are cut out of the budget. However, Maryland has money to subsidize illegal students (which I'm told amounts to about $6,000 per student).

We received word last week that, although my son qualifies for Maryland Educational Assistance, he will not be awarded. Gov. Martin O'Malley should be ashamed of himself. I also would like to give credit to Del. Pat McDonough for continuing his fight to get the necessary signatures on a petition to put this issue on the ballet in the next election. We need to take care of our citizens first.

Pam Spittel, Oliver Beach