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Gov. Douglas Speaks at VTC
As part of his campaign to stir up citizen support for his "Promise Scholarship" program, Gov. Jim Douglas stopped at Vermont Technical College Tuesday afternoon to address an attentive crowd of students, VTC employees, and reporters. To stem an alarming flight of Vermont’s high school graduates to out-of-state colleges with lower tuitions, the governor has proposed using $175 million in federal tobacco settlement money to hand out 1000 scholarships a year to Vermont students for the next 10 years. The gift comes with a caveat—recipients will be asked to stay in state for three years after graduation. If not, half of their scholarship money becomes a loan that must be repaid. Douglas said economic development and workforce training progams will be beefed up so that scholarship recipients will be more likely to find work in their respective fields post-graduation. Vermont is already "the second oldest state in America," Douglas said, and demographic projections show that over the next 10 years, the number of high school graduates will drop by 18%. The scholarship program, he said, would encourage more of the state’s young people to settle here. Democrats in the legislature have supported the scholarships, but have attacked Douglas’s plan to tap anti-tobacco funds to pay for them. Douglas responded to those criticisms Tuesday. He characterized the $175 million as "found money" since it represents an "extra bump" of $13.8 million in tobacco payments annually for 10 years. And, the state’s anti-smoking programs have already proved impressively successful, he said. "College graduates are four times less likely to smoke," Douglas added with a grin, conceding that that might not be his strongest point. New VTC President Ty Handy gave his strong support to the plan, calling it "the first and best step" in changing the distressing statistic of having nine out of 10 students leave the state to go to college. ____________ |
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