Idaho schools can’t promise matching scholarships

As part of its Campaign For Students, the Boise State Foundation

opened an account this fall for private donations to the Idaho

Promise Scholarship. Rick Smith, BSU vice president of University

Advancement, said the foundation has embarked on an aggressive

campaign to raise private funds for scholarships.

Idaho State University, College of Southern Idaho, Albertson

College of Idaho and Northwest Nazarene University currently match

funds for the scholarship. Boise State University and University of

Idaho are among the rest who do not.

Lynn Humphrey, State Board of Education manager of student aid

programs, said the legislature recognized that some institutions

would not be able to match these funds.

“I think they hoped the institutions would match the

scholarship, but said if they could not match funds, students

attending those schools would still receive the scholarship from

the state. I think they recognized the cost to the

institutions’ foundations,” Humphrey said.

“With as many students as Boise State’s got, it

would be a significant cost to the foundation and they probably

don’t have the funds.”

“We’d like to raise a pool of money to match funds

for the [Promise] scholarship,” Smith said.

However, Smith said the foundation currently does not provide

matching funds because almost all scholarship funds are

restricted.

Smith added that donors usually want their money to help

students who have a financial need or are high academic achievers,

or they want their money to go to a specific major.

Boise State President Bob Kustra was critical of the Promise

Scholarship in a recent address to the Boise City Club.

“I think the Promise Scholarship is a scholarship that

does not address real scholarship,” Kustra said.

“…I would argue that it’s nice to give help, but

let’s give help where it’s needed best.”

Kustra criticized the minimal standards needed to receive the

scholarship – Idaho residency and completion of secondary

school or equivalency in Idaho and a high school GPA of 3.0 or an

ACT score of 20. To remain eligible, students must complete 12

credits per semester and maintain a 2.5 GPA. Students must also be

under the age of 22 prior to July 1 of the year of the award.

Ali Ishaq, Boise State student body president, thinks it’s

important that Boise State match funds for the Promise Scholarship

because the program is geared toward average, middle-class students

– “the ones who don’t get a lot of help paying

for college.”

Dean of Enrollment Services Mark Wheeler estimated about 1,600

students receive the Promise Scholarship each year.

“The state provides almost $1 million annually for the

Promise Scholarship – that would end up costing BSU between

$800,000 to $1 million per year – so it’s an expensive

proposition,” Wheeler said.

“Any money that they want to give students, I’m not

going to argue with, but if they want Boise State to match those

funds, first of all, we need the funds. Secondly, if we had those

kinds of funds to give to scholarship, we probably would want it to

go somewhere else.”

Wheeler suggested scholarship funds would be put to better use

if they were based on merit or financial need.

The Idaho Legislature implemented the state scholarship program,

which was designed to encourage Idaho high school graduates to

continue their education at one of Idaho’s colleges or

universities. Implemented in the 2001-2002 academic year, the

scholarship, known as the Robert R. Lee Promise Scholarship

Category B, provides up to $250 per semester for a maximum of four

semesters for first-time freshman enrolled at one of Idaho’s

institutions of higher education. In its statute, the legislature

requested – but did not require – Idaho colleges and

universities to match state funds for the Promise Scholarship.

Jessica Adams
Managing Editor
The Arbiter

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