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Babauta vetoes nursing scholarship bill
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Posted on Aug 20 2005
As petitioned by some college students and even the CNMI Senate, Gov. Juan N. Babauta disapproved a nursing scholarship bill for lack of funding and a seemingly difficult eligibility criteria.
“Numerous concerns have been raised regarding the viability of this proposed program. These concerns…relate to the lack of identified funding for the program and the fact that this measure does not assist current nursing students in the manner originally intended,” said the governor in an Aug. 16, 2005 transmittal letter to the Legislature.
He cited that the bill appropriates $200,000 from the Tobacco Control Fund to finance the program, but he said that the Legislature recently passed a bill, now enacted as Public Law 14-80, “which continuously appropriates all monies deposited in the Tobacco Control Fund for other programs.”
Further, Babauta said that current nursing students from Northern Marianas College “have noted that the academic criteria and eligibility requirements…exclude a large number of existing students from becoming eligible for assistance.”
H.B. 14-221 proposes to set up a Nursing Scholarship Program that would allow 15 recipients for scholarship funding of up to $12,000 each per school year for four years.
Among others, the bill requires high school graduates to have attended six years of school in the CNMI, which must include the last two years.
Eligible applicants are those with “highest” grade point average, “highest” SAT/ACT score, and “difficulty level of courses taken during high school.”
For applicants currently enrolled in college, their parents must be bona fide CNMI residents for at least eight years and that applicants should be full-time students taking no less than 12 credits per semester, with the highest cumulative GPA and difficulty level courses.
No recipients may avail themselves of any other CNMI scholarship grants.
In his letter, Babauta noted that the Senate unanimously voted last month to recall the bill but the House of Representatives did not take any formal action to recall the measure.
He called on the Legislature to introduce and pass subsequent legislation that addresses the concerns.
