Anne Wheelock 

To the editor:

The Boston Sunday Globe of March, 7, 2004, predicts that Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's proposed MCAS-based scholarships will go 
disproportionately to white students in wealthy school districts ("Romney's scholarship plan favors richer school districts," page 1).

In fact, the Globe's predictions are already reality.  Governor Romney's  proposal is simply a continuation of existing Massachusetts policy.

Currently, tuition support in the form of "Koplik Certificate of Mastery  Awards" goes to students from advantaged communities.  Like Romney's 
proposed scholarships, these awards are offered to students on the basis of  MCAS results alone.  As a result, students' chances of receiving 
scholarship aid range widely from 1 in 312 in Fall River to 1 in 6 in Needham, Acton-Boxborough, and Lenox.  Other than students attending two of 
Boston's selective high schools, Boston students have had virtually no  chance of getting a Koplik scholarship. (For a more detailed analysis, see 
http://www.massparents.org/news/2004/mcas_scholarships.htm).

The state legislature should reject Governor Romney's MCAS scholarship  proposal.  Legislators should also restructure the state's existing tuition 
support program so that students in every school are rewarded for success, and so that MCAS scores and the community students live in do not
determine students' futures.

Anne Wheelock 
wheelock@shore.net

click here for the articles on Romney "Scholarships"