How Not to Take Away Scholarship Money

Thanks, Combest, for linking to the Springfield News-Leader story about this proposed bill:

A proposed Missouri Senate bill would strip community college students of tuition money if they violate underage drinking laws, which educators call shortsighted.

One provision of the bill sponsored by Sen. Luann Ridgeway calls for students to lose A+ program money — which pays for community college tuition — if they receive three "minor in possession by consumption" alcohol violations.

This proposal is arbitrary and unfair. It would punish community college students by taking away their scholarship money, while students who receive government loans and scholarships to attend four-year colleges are off the hook. And as a student quoted in the article pointed out, it doesn’t make sense to pass a law specifically targeting alcohol possession above other illegal activities. It’s reasonable to take away publicly-funded scholarships if students break the law, but legislators should target a class of offenses at once, not one infraction at a time. Otherwise, we’ll see a proliferation of scholarship retraction bills to compete with all of the potential state symbols that are bombarding the General Assembly.