The Scott's Tots Episode Manifested Itself in Real Life ... and I hate everything about the world
For context: Scott's Tots is an infamous episode from The Office (US version) where Michael Scott has to inform a classroom of young Black students that he can't afford to pay for their tuition because he's still a broke bwah.
https://instagram.com/p/C-IiBB9pS6r
A "wealthy" suburban family, the Schuler family (Jack Schuler, an exec at Abbott laboratories who net worth was about 1.1 billion with just a measly $200 million) started a Schuler Scholars program to give low-income students a way to pay for their college tuition. The program was founded a few decades ago, however abruptly shuttered earlier in July, leaving students scrambling and very much stressed out about how they'll fund their college education. The program in May said they would fulfill the promise of the $2,500 per year scholarship and health insurance but backed out completely.
As a reminder, Black students emerge with significantly heavier student debt on average than white students.
Even when the program was funded, there were questionable rules that students had to follow including:
- taking AP credit courses every year
- attending an expensive, small college chosen by the Schuler foundation -- "To get the $10,000 scholarship, students in the program, who are mostly Black and brown, had to attend one of the colleges handpicked by the Schulers - most of them small liberal arts schools that serve majority-white student populations.
“A lot of students who go to the ‘Schuler-preferred’ option end up transferring and dropping out because it was really racist, or they did not feel safe or they couldn’t find communities that they identified with in that place,” said a counselor who was laid off from the Schuler Scholars program in May."
Earlier this year the program also cancelled a promised all-expenses paid visit for Milwaukee students to have on campus college visits.
As to whether there's legal recourse since the scholarship affected where the students applied and that it was possible they could received additional financial aid had they been told in a timely manner.
“I just don’t think that anyone in the program has the resources to be able to do that, sadly,” scholarship participant Stephany Flores said. “And it kind of sucks, right? That we need to have resources in order to fight for the resources that were promised to us.”
Source | WBEZ Chicago
https://instagram.com/p/C-IiBB9pS6r
A "wealthy" suburban family, the Schuler family (Jack Schuler, an exec at Abbott laboratories who net worth was about 1.1 billion with just a measly $200 million) started a Schuler Scholars program to give low-income students a way to pay for their college tuition. The program was founded a few decades ago, however abruptly shuttered earlier in July, leaving students scrambling and very much stressed out about how they'll fund their college education. The program in May said they would fulfill the promise of the $2,500 per year scholarship and health insurance but backed out completely.
As a reminder, Black students emerge with significantly heavier student debt on average than white students.
Even when the program was funded, there were questionable rules that students had to follow including:
- taking AP credit courses every year
- attending an expensive, small college chosen by the Schuler foundation -- "To get the $10,000 scholarship, students in the program, who are mostly Black and brown, had to attend one of the colleges handpicked by the Schulers - most of them small liberal arts schools that serve majority-white student populations.
“A lot of students who go to the ‘Schuler-preferred’ option end up transferring and dropping out because it was really racist, or they did not feel safe or they couldn’t find communities that they identified with in that place,” said a counselor who was laid off from the Schuler Scholars program in May."
Earlier this year the program also cancelled a promised all-expenses paid visit for Milwaukee students to have on campus college visits.
As to whether there's legal recourse since the scholarship affected where the students applied and that it was possible they could received additional financial aid had they been told in a timely manner.
“I just don’t think that anyone in the program has the resources to be able to do that, sadly,” scholarship participant Stephany Flores said. “And it kind of sucks, right? That we need to have resources in order to fight for the resources that were promised to us.”
Source | WBEZ Chicago