Delegate consistently voted to keep PROMISE

I have been quoted as saying that I do not like the PROMISE scholarship being funded through gambling gains. I have a concern that we are preying on those West Virginians who may develop gambling problems to fund the PROMISE scholarship. This is true, bu t there is more to the story.

Although I have concerns about the PROMISE scholarship and I have introduced legislation to address these concerns, I was the only legislator in the state to not break the PROMISE.

In March 2004, during special session immediately following the passage of the fiscal year 2005 budget, I was the only state legislator who voted against pulling the rug out from under the upcoming class of PROMISE scholars. The legislature passed SB 1013, a supplemental appropriation, which eliminated $5 million from PROMISE. I requested a gubernatorial veto. The governor did veto the bill and even after maintaining that $5 million, it became necessary to add an additional $3 million to PROMISE in the June special session.

If my fellow legislators had their way, this year's students who were planning to attend college on the PROMISE scholarship, and their families, would be floundering for last-minute solutions for funding the broken promise. I was the only one who voted against putting students and their families in this position. From recent statements by my fellow lawmakers one would believe that they have fully supported PROMISE and that there are no problems.

Education is the means by which West Virginians can overcome poverty and have access to opportunities to improve their lives. This is why I am concerned about the decrease in funding for needs-based scholarships since the PROMISE scholarship was created. In 2003 I introduced legislation to contain the cost of the PROMISE scholarship. This would have added a needs test, so that citizens of West Virginia would not be funding the education of students from the wealthiest families who can afford the responsibility of providing an education to their children.

The price tag for the PROMISE scholarship is escalating because tuition is increasing. In my second week of service in the Legislature, I helped bring this to light in Charleston. The Legislature was trying to force unrealistic caps on tuition at the same time that the governor was hacking away at the state funding of the institutions. I fought against forcing WVU into a position that it would have to cut faculty, staff, programs and quality of an education in order to survive. The existence of the state funded PROMISE seems to be throwing funding of higher education out of balance. This needs to be earnestly studied.

The onslaught of proposed higher education budget cutting by the state put me in a position of constantly fighting for WVU funding. Did you know that although the PROMISE scholarship funds the cost of in-state tuition, that tuition does not cover the cost of a WVU education? The state should not handout scholarships across the state at the same time that they are slashing the state funding of the universities and think that higher education is being adequately funded.

I was not in the House of Delegates when it voted to create the PROMISE in order to legalize video poker machines. But, your readers deserve to know that I was the only one who voted against abruptly breaking the promise they had made to this year's scholars, without comprehensive study and with no discussion. I have been your delegate who has voted against every gambling expansion bill. SB 1013 was not going to change the proliferation of video lottery or dependency upon gambling revenue, but it would have broken the promise without warning.

Delegate Cindy Frich
R-Monongalia
Morgantown