Latest PROMISE scholarship legislation years too late

A bill recently introduced to the West Virginia State Legislature may make the state's Promise Scholarship into more of a promise from the students, not to the students.

The bill, H. B. 2599, proposes to make a change to the current legislation so the scholarship will become a forgivable loan.

In essence, this means the money received will be considered a loan until certain criteria are met, at which time it will be considered a scholarship and the debt is erased.

This new criteria is the concept that once a student has graduated from college, they are required to stay and live within West Virginia for at least four more years.

This has caused quite a stir throughout the state, as those who graduate college in West Virginia may not necessarily want to stay.

The question to be asked, though, is whether or not this new clause of the Promise Scholarship would really be such an outrageous request.

The idea behind the scholarship was to create a more educated work force in West Virginia by making it affordable for the state's high school graduates to attend college.

In turn, there would be a smarter work force which would draw in more business and boost the economy.

All in all, a pretty reasonable plan. The problem arises when many of the people who receive the scholarship then move on to live and work out of state.

Obviously, the work force isn't going to be improved if those receiving the scholarship simply move away.

Not only does this keep the economy from getting the boost this scholarship is intended to produce, but the government is in essence throwing this money away.

It is not to say that helping people become more educated is a waste, but as for the intent of the scholarship it would be considered a failure.

This is exactly why asking those who accept the scholarship to stick around should not seem so crazy.

Through the scholarships, the government is making an investment in the future of the students who choose to accept it.

Forcing them to stay in state is a form of protecting that investment.

The idea is that by forcing a four year stay in West Virginia upon graduation, it will be enough time for the graduates to settle in and up make it permanent.

This plan would have been an incredibly intelligent one had it been part of the original legislation which brought the scholarship into existence.

Unfortunately for the legislature, it wasn't.

Now that the Promise Scholarship has been around for eight years, bringing this legislation before the state legislature only shows that the experiment is failing.

It shows the legislature obviously did not completely think the legislation through the first time – though this has been clear by the fact that they make changes to it nearly every year.

The problem with this particular change is that it will be very difficult to push through.

It would have been simple to include in the original legislation, as it still would have been a great plan that would help a lot of people.

Now that the legislation is already in effect, changing it to make it more difficult to keep the scholarship is not going to be easy.

It is always easier to give people less in the first place than to take back what you gave them before.

The constituents throughout the state are not going to just let their representatives take away an opportunity that is already available to them.

That is the only real problem that exists with the bill that is currently before the West Virginia state legislature – it came a few years too late.