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The Baltimore Sun Financial aid
based on potential or patronage? By Alec MacGillis March 7, 2004 As thousands of needy students sit on waiting lists for financial aid, Maryland legislators are handing out nearly $11 million a year in taxpayer-funded college scholarships to almost anybody they want - including their colleagues' children. Defenders of the legislative scholarship program, which has survived repeated attempts to abolish it, say the absence of rules lets lawmakers grant money to deserving students who might otherwise fall through bureaucratic cracks. But a review by The Sun shows that political considerations sometimes appear to play a role. Examples of scholarships given to families with political ties since 2000 include:
Klausmeier defended the awards last week. "My daughter applied, and she was lucky enough to get it," she said. "There was no, 'Hey, just give it to me.' ... Should she have been penalized because of who I was? It wasn't like it was an astronomical amount of money." Although the scholarships are sometimes relatively small, the nearly $11 million total amounts to 14 percent of the $76 million the state is spending on financial aid this year. With tuition at public colleges skyrocketing, about 5,000 students are on a waiting list for the state's main needs-based aid program. For legislators, the scholarships are a substantial source of patronage. Maryland's 47 senators get $138,000 each to distribute annually in their districts, and the 141 delegates each get about $24,000. In one of the few rules governing the program, the scholarships are limited to $200 to $2,000 a year and generally must be used at a two- or four-year college in Maryland, public or private. Lawmakers disagree The law encourages senators to consider need, but that is not defined. Students often get awards from more than one legislator, and the scholarships are renewable, as long a student stays in good academic standing. The only similar program in the country is in Illinois, where legislators give out about $6 million in tuition waivers at state colleges. That program has also survived repeated attempts to do away with it. Critics of Maryland's program, which dates back more than a century, acknowledge that some recipients from connected families might be deserving students. But they argue that letting lawmakers distribute aid tilts the odds toward people inside the political loop who know about the program and whose children inevitably benefit from name recognition. In effect, the program gives each legislator a taxpayer-funded way to gain the favor of up to several hundred families in the legislator's district every year. "It's wrong from every standpoint," said Sen. Robert H. Kittleman, a Howard County Republican who has long opposed the program. "It's a way of giving power to incumbents. It buys a lot of votes." Miller, the Senate president, defended the scholarships, saying they allow legislators to take individual circumstances into account in a way that the formulas of other financial aid programs don't allow. "There is a human side that faceless, nameless bureaucrats are incapable of addressing," he said. "A computer could do their job." Miller acknowledged that the program is susceptible to misuse, but he said that is not sufficient reason to do away with it. "All in all, when you look at the program, its value over the years outweighs ... any potentiality for abuse," he said. House Speaker Michael E. Busch said he would be in favor of ending the program, particularly if legislators are giving awards to one another's children. "That stuff is over the edge. There's no reason for a legislator's child to get money from another legislator," Busch said. Political connections None of the program's critics suggests that questionable scholarships make up more than a small minority of the roughly 11,000 given each year. But in scanning the list of scholarship awards, it is not hard to find names with political connections. # After Jacob J. Mohorovic Jr. lost his House of Delegates seat in 2002, a fellow Dundalk Democrat, Sen. Norman R. Stone Jr., gave Mohorovic's daughter a $200-a-semester scholarship. "I didn't see anything wrong with it, just because he was a delegate in the past," Stone said. "She's a good student, they had other kids in college, and I don't think she should be penalized for his having served in the legislature." # Sen. Philip C. Jimeno gave a $400-a-year grant to Martha Kolodziejski, granddaughter of another Anne Arundel Democrat, former Del. Charles W. "Stokes" Kolodziejski. "I don't think the fact that your grandfather served in the legislature, and that I know him, should exclude that child," Jimeno said. The Sun's review also found instances in which recipients' families were political contributors. From 2000 to 2003, Del. James E. Malone Jr. gave Jared Silberzahn, a Salisbury University student from Halethorpe, $3,200 in scholarships. In 2002, his parents contributed $220 to Malone's campaign. Norma Silberzahn said the donations were to buy tickets to fund-raisers held by Malone, whose father was a longtime American Legion friend of her husband's. It shouldn't come as a surprise, she said, that Malone would know some of the students he gives scholarships to. "It's not what you know, it's who you know. We know that. It's everywhere in life," she said. "If you know someone to get your money, go ahead." Malone, a Democrat from Arbutus, agreed that some familiarity was unavoidable, but he said he had given Silberzahn money because he is a "sharp young man." "There are some kids that have scholarships from me; I've known them and their family my whole life," he said. "I've lived in this little town 47 years. There are people who apply for scholarships. Do I know them? Sure, I know them." 'A bad kind of equality' A bill to end the program passed the House of Delegates in 1997 but failed in the Senate, where Miller led the opposition. Since then, about three dozen legislators uncomfortable with the program have turned over their allotted money to state financial aid administrators to distribute to needy students. But there has been no renewed effort to eliminate the program. "You finally realize you're hitting your head against the wall and can't do it," Kittleman said. "I'd really like to get rid of it, but I'm tired of getting beat up on it." Critics argue that the program makes even less sense in a time of rising tuition. Because the same amount of aid is given out by lawmakers in wealthy districts as in poor ones, the program isn't sending money where it is most needed, said James Browning, executive director of Common Cause Maryland. "It represents a bad kind of equality. It assumes that the socioeconomic makeup of any district is the same as any other," Browning said. "It's a terrible way to get the money to where it ought to go." Need-based student aid To increase need-based aid, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is seeking to end the state's $16 million in Hope Scholarships, which go to students based mostly on merit. He plans to shift the money into the need-based Education Access grants but has offered no proposal to end the legislative scholarships. The Education Access program has the flexibility to help even middle-class families if they demonstrate need, said Andrea Hunt, the state's financial aid director. Shifting the legislative scholarship money into Education Access would reduce the size of the waiting list, she said. Critics say it is not efficient to have lawmakers hand out scholarship money. Overwhelmed by applications, many appoint panels of community members to select winners, and Hunt's office spends long hours communicating with legislators about their selections. Experts on higher education financing also question claims that financial aid administrators can't judge individual students' need. "This is why we've got this huge system, to make sure money gets to the people who need it most," said Thomas G. Mortenson, director of Postsecondary Education Opportunity, a think tank based in Iowa. "It's almost a guarantee of inappropriate treatment that the definition of need is not specified in the Maryland program." Selections defended Legislators say they are aware of the potential for abuse, but they deny any attempts to reward their colleagues or associates. Miller said he gave money to Antonetti's sons because they were both "exceptional students." The county's former elections chief, he said, has "never been a supporter of mine." Redmer said he had no idea that his son had gotten a scholarship from Klausmeier. Branch said he learned only after the fact that his daughter had won a scholarship from McFadden. Sfikas said he didn't remember giving money to Irby's daughter-in-law but added, "In this district, with a history of politically involved families, we just had a philosophy that if we helped them, we helped them. ... If they lived in the district and needed help, God bless them, we helped them." As they defended their award selections, several legislators said they would not put up a fight if there were another push to end the program because they have grown weary of the paperwork and the pressure from constituents. "If the state took it over, it wouldn't break my heart," Klausmeier said. Sun staff writers David Nitkin, Michael Dresser and Larry Carson contributed to this article. Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun |
