Editorial: Cutting is not the answer

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007 | 7:09 a.m.

There is no question that the Millennium Scholarship program has been a success.

Since the year 2000 more than 40,000 graduates of Nevada high schools have received the scholarship to go to college, and the percentage of Nevada high school graduates going to college has gone from 26 percent in 1998 to 46 percent in 2006.

The Legislature will need to decide the future of the program because, at its current rate, it will run out of money in 2013.

Lawmakers and state leaders have tinkered with this problem before but not solved it. The program, when passed in 1999, gave high school graduates with at least a B average up to $2,500 a year for tuition to attend a state college for four years. The academic requirements have since been raised and the scholarship has been limited to pay for 12 units a semester. Further tinkering will not be the answer, however. Lawmakers need to find a way to create a sustainable program, and they should remember the spirit of the program - raising the level of education in the state.

In 1999 then-Gov. Kenny Guinn proposed the scholarship plan in his State of the State address, saying it would help turn around Nevada's dismal rate of high school students going to state colleges, and the plan has delivered.

Guinn urged the Legislature to pass what he called a bold plan, saying it was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide Nevada's children with the means to advance their education in a way never thought possible."

What has been proposed before Monday's start of the 2007 Legislature are a handful of plans that would just work around the problem by further increasing the requirements or lessening the amount of money given.

Guinn called for a program that would be funded in perpetuity. While that has not happened, it should. The Legislature needs to make a commitment to properly fund the scholarship permanently.