How ironic is it that on the same day when The Salt Lake Tribune publishes an excellent op-ed about an innovative and necessary program of stimulating and rewarding high achieving students at Farmington High School, there is a front page article about the Utah Board of Regents reducing the merit-based scholarships offered in the Regents and New Century programs in order to provide more financial need-based scholarships for disadvantaged youth.
As delighted as I am that youngsters in financial need will be getting more help, I am appalled that the money for their needs will be taken away from youngsters who have worked extremely hard to be high-achieving, exceptionally bright students.
I am aware that there are people who criticize even the notion of “merit,” arguing that merit can be defined in arbitrary ways that wind up excluding students who have enormous capacities. While there may be instances of “merit” being inappropriately applied, I think those are rare, just as are the incidents the Board of Regents cites of students who are awarded merit scholarships who financially don’t need them. Acting on the rare incidents to discard a worthwhile program is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
By all means, give more financial aid to the financially needy, but don’t take it from meritorious students. Surely there is money available, for example, in some fossil fuel subsidy that is being given to some corporation that can be much better used with students who are aspiring to a college education.
Michael A. Kalm, Salt Lake City