Millennium Scholarships touted as economic development tool

Richard N. Velotta and Benjamin Grove

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn says the best thing the state can do to diversify the economy is to strengthen the local work force.

Guinn's plan to bolster the labor pool is to offer companies a steady supply of college graduates.

Guinn made a pitch to the Nevada Development Authority on Thursday for the "Millennium Scholarship" plan, unveiled last week in his State of the State address. Then he stopped at Rancho and Clark High Schools to tell students about the proposal.

"Think about what this will mean to you," he told mostly juniors gathered in the Rancho gymnasium. "It's my job to work to get the money. It's your job to see that you don't get a 2.9 or a 2.8 (grade point average)." The proposal would offer $2,500-a-year scholarships to high school students with B averages (3.0 gpa) who want to attend a Nevada university; $1,250 for students who attend a state community college. This year's high school juniors would be the first students to qualify for the scholarship if the Legislature approves it.

Guinn proposes to fund the plan with half of a $48 million-per-year settlement the state will receive from the tobacco industry.

The scholarship plan is controversial because Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa has said it was the state's intent to use the settlement money for public health needs.

"My father died of emphysema, from smoking," Guinn told a gutsy Clark High student who asked the Governor about Del Papa's objection. "If he were alive today he would look me in the eye and say, 'I agree with this program.' He was old enough to know he shouldn't be smoking."

Guinn told the NDA and his student audiences that only 37 to 40 percent of Nevada's high school graduates attend college. The national average is 65 percent, he said.

"You can't be proud of it," Guinn told the NDA, an economic development agency. "I'm not proud of it."

But Guinn believes that if businesses considering relocating to Nevada see an educational commitment, they'll be more inclined to move here. Diversification of the economy with non-gaming industries is important to the state at a time when casinos are being built all over the country, stealing Nevada's tourists.

"This (Millennium Scholarship) is the best program for the Nevada Development Authority that has ever come along," said Guinn, a former NDA board chairman. "What better recruitment program could you have than that?"

Several Rancho students, including junior Casmar Mason, said they had below-B averages, and had no interest in the scholarship.

"I got something planned already -- I want to be a carpenter," Mason said.

Other students seemed grateful for the scholarship proposal.

"It's a great idea, it can motivate a lot of us to get better grades and to go on to college," said junior Mariana Lomeli, who said she gets As and Bs.