Even Kenny Guinn would revamp Millennium Scholarships

This won't be a popular suggestion with many, but the Gov. Kenny Guinn Memorial Millennium Scholarship needs to be re-evaluated. Nevada just can't afford to continue the hugely popular program, which provides up to $10,000 for Nevada students to attend universities and colleges in state.

When it was first proposed by the late governor and established in 2000, times were flush. Nevada had received tobacco settlement money, and the GOP governor wanted to use the bulk of it to make it easier for students to attend a college or university and, it was hoped, settle down in Nevada.

But remember, Guinn planned the program as entirely funded by tobacco settlement money, not by Nevada taxpayers, which is now happening. Yet when Gov. Brian Sandoval built in $10 million from the state's already tight budget to keep the Millennium Scholarship going through 2015, only one lawmaker voted against it.

From the start, I was one of those who thought the scholarship should be means tested. Let's face it, there's no reason the wealthy should receive a subsidy worth up to $10,000 for their kids' college.

As we all know, it's hard to pass up free money, and $10,000 is a nice chunk of change, even for the kids of doctors and lawyers who took advantage of it. But Guinn opposed means testing; he wanted it available to all.

Over the years, the program administered by Treasurer Kate Marshall has been tweaked so that it's more difficult to enter. The qualifying grade-point average started at 3.0 and is now 3.25. Students must maintain a 2.60 grade-point average to stay in the program. Perhaps that should be increased.

The scholarship program was one of the greatest joys of the hugely popular governor who died last July 22. Wherever he went, he was thanked either by a former student, a current student or a member of a student's family. His widow, Dema Guinn, still receives those thanks constantly.

But he also was a governor who looked carefully at numbers. Today, Kenny Guinn himself might suggest changing the program.

"If it meant taking away from other important programs, he would have compromised, but he wouldn't have wanted it to go away," Dema Guinn said.

Grateful that Sandoval is keeping the program alive until 2015, she also agreed her husband wouldn't want other important programs such as health programs for children and senior citizens to suffer in the future by taking general fund dollars to pay for the scholarships.

"Students need it more now than they did 10 years ago," she said. "I feel like we're helping out Nevadans to keep it going."

The program has paid out more than $252.5 million to nearly 66,000 students, including about 27,000 currently receiving benefits. Yet only 23,748 have received degrees. About 34 percent of the scholars don't graduate, compared to the 53 percent of those not on the program.

It's getting harder to pay for the program. The state had to find more money and decided to take $7.6 million from the unclaimed property fund to support it, along with this one-time infusion of $10 million.

The Nevada System of Higher Education says millennium scholars have a higher graduation rate than non-millennium scholars, and the freshman retention rate is more than 15 percent higher for the millennium students.

More Nevada students are graduating.

But can they find jobs in Nevada these days? We don't know except anecdotally, but many are moving away for better job prospects. Who can blame them?

If Guinn still lived, he'd try to come up with solutions. State officials need to do the same without dismantling the Millennium Scholarship, yet by being fiscally prudent. Kenny Guinn would want that as well.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.