In “Merit scholarships cheating poor, some say” (News, June 11), there is a quote by Lori Thull, director of state relations for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, which administers all financial aid programs in the state: “We think it would be unfair to take the money from one social group and give it to another.” Ms. Thull should realize that need-based scholarships are a massive transfer of money from one social group to another, as the vast majority of taxes that support her programs come from wealthy and middle-class taxpayers. If she is truly against forced wealth redistribution, then the tax base for need-based scholarships would be very small indeed.
Hard-working, bright, low-income students would qualify for the merit scholarships just as readily as their middle- and upper-class peers. The only group of students that would be rewarded by further replacing merit scholarships with need-based ones is the low-achieving poor. Telling students that they will not be rewarded for their hard work, and that, instead, the money will go to less able or less hardworking students would be a tragedy for our educational system.
