What's not to like about a proposed federal aid program that encourages students to pursue math, science, and strategic foreign languages in college?
Why We Need the SMART Program. Sen. Bill Frist writes that colleges have nothing to fear -- and much to gain -- from the new federal scholarships to promote study of math and science. [Inside Higher Ed]
Senator Frist writes:
I know that some college officials have expressed doubts about the way the [SMART] program shifts away from the traditional practice of awarding federal aid to undergraduates based primarily on economic need rather than merit...I’m shocked that some of SMART Grants’ critics appear to believe that low-income students can’t earn good grades.
That seems right - who could disagree? Well....
When I was ready to enter college, I was a "low-income" student. I went to high school in a rural school district; my school was near the bottom in the entire state in terms of quality education. I was smarter than your average bear, as we used to say, but all my native smarts couldn't entirely compensate for the lack of educational opportunities in my high school. I took placement exams the summer before I entered college that showed I knew next to nothing about chemistry, despite having taken it in high school. Why? Because we never had class. We just sat around and talked. My teacher wasn't qualified to teach chemistry. So he didn't. Besides, he may have been tired from driving the school bus in the morning. I didn't know any calculus, either, because it wasn't offered in my school. But I wanted to be an engineer.
Students like me may not qualify for "merit" grants because we are amateurs competing with professionals - the students whose schools offer calculus, and whose teachers actually teach chemistry - maybe even AP chemistry. Yet we amateurs are no less capable of becoming scientists and engineers, after a little remedial work such as I needed. If your family is wealthy enough that you don't qualify for Pell grants, then you are also probably attending school in a wealthier school district, with all its attendant advantages.
We should not be trying to select the "students of merit" and only investing our money in them. We need federal aid for low-income students administered similarly to the G.I.Bill post-World War II. If it "fostered the growth of the American middle class" back then, then something like it could do the same for low-income students today. The G. I. Bill did not ask if you "merited" your benefit. It just offered it - up to you whether or not to take advantage. One of my uncles was able to become an engineer through this program. Who knows, though, whether he would have been deemed "meritorious" prior to his college years.
We need to do as the G. I. Bill did - invest widely, provide opportunity, and let those who rise to it do so. Shrinking the pool beforehand will only deprive us of individuals who could overcome their poor schooling - like me.
Yes, it is insulting to suggest that low-income students do not have as much native ability as other students. But it is even more insulting to pretend that the circumstances of their lives and schooling have no impact on their measured "merit".
9:27:40 PM 
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