Thus reads the headline of an article by Gary Scharrer with the Austin (TX) Bureau of the Houston Chronicle today. But that is only half of the story. The other half is what UT is going to do with the money they are saving. They are going to give it away alright, but just not to “the best and brightest students” but to the less academic high school graduates.
In the words of Thomas Melecki, director of student financial services, “We decided that we had to direct our resources to make sure that this place stays accessible to all the students who are qualified to come here - regardless of there ability to pay”.
There already is available a great many of these scholarships specifically for the economically disadvantaged. It would seem they could spend the money to try to find the hundreds of thousands of economically disadvantaged gifted students who are dropping out of high school every year.
Dr. Donna Y. Ford of Vanderbilt University reports that her research shows that 250,000 gifted young black students alone are dropping out ever year. If the data of the Texas Education Agency for 2007 is correct, the number of gifted Hispanics, and the gifted poor of all races, is three to four times that number.
If the University of Texas is so concerned about equal opportunity in higher education, why don’t they spend the money to find these truly gifted kids so they can educate them. After all these are the people with the greatest potential to become our leaders of tomorrow in business, education and government.
The University of Texas needs to decide if they are going to be a place of higher education or a politically correct social club.
“By…(selecting) the youth of genius from among the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the State of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use if not sought for and cultivated”. Thomas Jefferson, 1772
We did not listen then. Will we now?
Dick Kantenberger
Gifted Education Writer
Examiner.com
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