Hannah and the governor

Last week, I wondered why Gov. Joe Manchin had never gone into detail explaining the changes he wanted to see in the PROMISE scholarship program. So I called his press office to ask about it. No one was around, so I left a phone message. A couple of hours later, the governor himself called, and we talked some about PROMISE.

During the conversation, I said my 10th-grade daughter was watching a morning newscast the day after his State of the State speech, and she hit the ceiling when she heard his idea of requiring people who receive PROMISE scholarships to work in West Virginia at least two years after graduating from college.

Manchin said he wanted to talk with my daughter and gave me a phone number where she could call him that evening. Hannah, being a bit of a shy girl in these things (but not that many others), didn’t call the governor that night. She didn’t call the next night, either.

So yesterday I get a call from the governor’s people asking how they could call Hannah. I gave them our home phone number. The governor tried calling her after school, but the line was out because of the previous night’s wind storm. So he calls me and I give him a cell number where she could be reached.

Later, I learn that Manchin called Hannah. When she answered the phone, she took it to her bedroom and locked the door so no one could listen in. When I asked her about it, she said she didn’t recall much about the conversation except that Manchin did most of the talking and said things about China and India. She says she will tell me more as she remembers.

Maybe she was just overwhelmed by the governor wanting to talk to her.

Before Manchin’s speech, she was undecided on going to Marshall or Ohio State. One of her favorite aunts graduated from Ohio State a few years ago. So did another aunt.
But if Hannah qualifies for a PROMISE scholarship and has to commit to working in West Virginia for two years, she might be off to Columbus.

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Speaking of which, I have to wonder if there is something at work in the background as far as PROMISE scholarships go.

PROMISE scholarships are funded by profits from limited video lottery. The law authorizing video lottery sunsets in two or three years. There is a move afoot to reduce the number of video lottery machines statewide, especially those in businesses that derive most of their money from it.

Manchin indicated in our phone conversation last week that he would be in favor of such a reduction. The video lottery law was intended to regulate machines found in mom-and-pop businesses and in fraternal clubs, Manchin said. No one intended for out-of-state companies to swoop into the state and set up video casinos all over the place, he said.

If I interpret things right, that means we could see a significant drop in money available for PROMISE scholarships in a few years.

Which comes first: Reducing the amount of money given in PROMISE scholarships so it will be easier to reduce the number of video lottery machines? Or wait until the machines are gone and then deal with the fallout of a high demand for PROMISE scholarships with no revenue source to fund them?

State officials can put this off this year — maybe — but they won’t be able to duck it next year or the year after.

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We received a news release the other day about a survey of the high school class of 2007. The survey was done for the state Higher Education Policy Commission. A few of the findings noted in the news release interested me:

-- Respondents indicated that academic programs and affordability were the primary factors influencing their college choice. (And here I thought winning athletic programs were one of the big factors. Huh.).

-- PROMISE eligibility was unlikely to influence students’ decision on whether to attend college.

-- PROMISE eligibility did influence students’ decisions on where to attend college. Evidence from the survey suggests PROMISE influenced nearly 14 percent of respondents to attend a West Virginia college rather than an out-of-state college.

-- Students from upper-income and college-graduate households were much more likely to identify PROMISE eligibility as having influenced their decision to attend college in West Virginia than were first-generation college students.