Cass Ballenger: “President Clinton, in his recent State of the Union Address proposed another Federal education program to provide merit…”

“President Clinton, in his recent State of the Union Address proposed another Federal education program to provide merit based scholarships to the top 5 percent of high school graduates. This despite the fact that there are already 47 scholarship and fellowship programs operated by the Federal Government. In fact, President Bush's Presidential Access Scholarship Program--a merit based program--is still on the books. This highlights an important point. The Education Committee has discovered over 760 Federal education programs spanning 39 separate agencies, departments, and commissions. Many of these programs were designed to meet the exact same goals--yet each has its own application process and regulations. So why does President Clinton propose one more education program-- program 761? Is it to improve the education of our children or merely to make us feel like we are educating our children by spending money and creating programs? This is a critical question we must answer--the education of our children is at stake.”