The Illinois House today voted to end a century-old legislative scholarship program beset by decades of abuse by politicians who passed out the tuition waivers to relatives and children of cronies and campaign contributors.
The 79-32 vote sends the scholarship ban to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who has said he’ll sign it into law.
Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, voted for the ban. "We're not here to create fiefdoms,” Franks said.
Rep. Monique Davis, D-Chicago, warned that doing away with the scholarships will hurt high school students who might not be able to afford college.
"What more can we take from them?" Davis said. "Will your heart really let you take a scholarship from a kid who's trying to get a degree in the state of Illinois?"
Jeez, Rep. Davis, here's a novel idea. If it's about the scholarships, offer an amendment that keeps the funding intact and transfers the authority to grant the waivers back to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.
1 comment:
Yeah, but if that happens how will Rep Davis be able to pay back the sons or neices of the ward bosses or the local Service Union leadership in her district that helped tear down the signs of her opponents in the 5 way primary she won to get the gig in the first place? I mean, there's a young local business owner who is thinking of challenging her in the next primary in 2014, and by god, SOMEONE has to forge signatures on his petition so that someone else can claim fraud to the State Board of Elections. That's 2 scholarships right there!
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