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Y! MyWebHusted, Strickland part company in scholarship squabble
Sunday, September 28, 2008
COLUMBUS — For House Speaker Jon Husted, the Choose Ohio First Scholarship program was a long-overdue opportunity for Ohio to shake off the rust and recruit the blue ribbon students in science, technology, engineering and math who can help reshape the state's teetering economy.
Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher must like the program, too.
They sure bragged it up this month in their Sept. 6 commentary in the Wall Street Journal.
"We're also spending $100 million in scholarships for students studying science, technology, engineering and math," they told Journal readers in a glowing description of Ohio's commitment to higher education.
Oops!
Did they really say $100 million?
Yes, they did. That's their story and they're sticking to it, but Husted calculates things differently.
"It certainly didn't reflect the reality of what's going on in Ohio," the Kettering Republican said.
The $52.3 billion two-year state budget that Strickland signed last year — celebrated with hugs between the Democratic governor and Republican speaker — included $100 million for the program.
After spending cuts, budget reallocations, "cash management" (whatever that is) and a change in guidelines for the scholarships, the total now is less than $10 million.
The commitment still is to spend $100 million and even more over future years, said Chancellor Eric Fingerhut, who oversees higher education and reports directly to Strickland.
The problem, however, is that state budgets include spending authority for only two years. This budget ends on June 30, 2009.
If Strickland wants more money for the scholarships, he'll have to ask for it again next year and persuade a brand-new legislature to go along.
"The governor has made a firm commitment that each year he will seek sufficient funds to continue...," said Fingerhut.
That's not good enough for Husted, even though he concedes there's not much he can do about it.
The program was largely his idea, an opportunity to make a bold statement with the state checkbook that Ohio wanted to break loose from a status quo that found it sinking into second-class economic status.
In case Strickland wondered, Husted's idea was not to invest $100 million during a four or five year period. It was to spend the $100 million in two years and then ask for $100 million more in the next budget cycle. In Husted's view, the reduction in this budget cycle amounted to 90 percent. That probably ranks right up there with the biggest cuts Strickland has made to keep the budget in balance in the stumbling economy. Husted said a smaller reduction would have been acceptable but not this.
"...We're never going to get well in this state unless we start making these kinds of investments. We're never going to quote 'turn around Ohio' until we start...," Husted said.
Fingerhut said the state didn't need the full amount to get things started. None of the students who qualify begin school until this fall, he said.
Instead of sending money directly to universities in advance for a four or five-year education for scholarship winners, the state now will reimburse the schools as students work toward their degrees, the chancellor said.
"Our intention is for it to become a permanent feature," Fingerhut said.
The scholarship winners better hope so.
