Mitch Daniels' third State of the State address covered many topics, and some could affect Hoosier students if proposed initiatives are passed.
In regards to education, Daniels proposed franchising the state lottery and using the increased revenues to spend "a billion dollars or more" on higher education. At first glance, it seems like students should rejoice and apply for scholarships, but first impressions can be deceiving.
The proposed scholarships would have one major string attached: after graduation, students would be required to live and work in Indiana for three years, or pay back the award in full if they didn't fulfill the requirement, according to Indiana's Web site.
The purpose of the scholarships is to allow high-achieving students to receive money from the state for college and to keep them in the state after they graduate. The scholarships would be merit-based - taking SAT or ACT exam scores, GPA and class rank into consideration, according to Indiana's Web site. Obviously, these criteria are focused on awarding the high-achieving, cream-of-the-crop students.
But the so-called brain drain Indiana is experiencing won't be fixed by creating scholarships that require students to stay here against their wishes after they graduate. The high-achieving students contributing to the brain drain will either find other ways of funding their education or disregard the scholarships altogether.
To be fair, most scholarships have some sort of requirement or another that has to be satisfied, but most don't go as far as to determine where graduates can choose to live.
In some cases, students simply can't find the career options they want in Indiana and are forced to leave the state after graduation. This is a simple fact of life, and forcing students to stay for a certain amount of time after graduation isn't going to change this fact.
There are other loopholes to be found - one is in the student who graduates and continues to live in Indiana due to the after-graduation requirement, but chooses to commute to work in Chicago. Indiana gets the property taxes from this graduate, but the home-grown intelligence is still benefitting another state's economy.
It would also be unfortunate if the high-achieving students decide to pass up the scholarships, because then they will inevitably trickle down to the next-level student. This means the high achievers would still leave the state and Indiana would be stuck with the mediocre students for three years.
All in all, franchising the lottery to provide more scholarship funds to Indiana students is a great idea, but attaching a commitment to staying in Indiana might scare away the very people Indiana wants to keep within its borders. If Daniels wants students to stay, he needs to promise graduates high-paying, competitive-wage jobs, not after-graduation restrictions.
Although the privatization of the lottery and the proposed scholarships are both good ideas, the future prospects of Indiana college graduates shouldn't be hindered because of scholarship requirements.
After all, isn't college supposed to teach us how to make all the right decisions?
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