For thousands of high school students a college education can seem like an unobtainable dream. From financial obligations to family commitments, college for some students is not possible without the assistance of scholarships.

These scholarships come in all shapes, sizes and from a variety of sources. But for more than a century, students in Illinois had the opportunity to be awarded a General Assembly Scholarship which would provide tuition waivers for them to attend state universities in Illinois. This scholarship program, which allows every lawmaker to give up to eight one-year scholarships each year to state universities, is at the complete discretion of the elected official.

And as history has shown, in many cases, all the student needs to do to get a General Assembly Scholarship is have a parent willing to fork over campaign donations to their local legislator.

The first steps toward ending this abhorrent practice came to end this week after an investigative journalist from the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity and a journalism class from Columbia College in Chicago exposed the truth behind the General Assembly Scholarship process.

The Franklin Center, a leading non-profit journalism organization, provided the resources, training and expertise to get the bottom of this story and shine light on a badly abused program.

Scott Reeder, a managing editor with the Franklin Center, was first to recognize the inequitable allocation of scholarships and recruited journalist Kevin Lee to delve into the story.

For months, Kevin plowed through the records of every legislative scholarship issued by lawmakers over a five-year period. He took the information and built a computer database from scratch to which he methodically cross referenced each recipients address with a state board of elections database of campaign contributors.

Kevin’s findings were astonishing. The children of hundreds of campaign contributors were awarded General Assembly Scholarships.

But Kevin and Scott knew there was more to this story. That’s why from the start they went entered a partnership with a journalism class at Columbia College Chicago and chicagotalks.org, a local news web site that specializes in investigative work.

Columbia College students interviewed more than 60 scholarship recipients and found that students and their parents were being solicited not only for campaign donations but also to do campaign work like walking door-to-door and marching in parades. And in some cases, the lawmaker required to register to vote in order to get a tuition waiver.

The Columbia students then interviewed every member of the Illinois legislature to determine what criteria scholarship applicants need to meet. In many cases, there were no criteria whatsoever.

The partnership between the Franklin Center and Columbia College was mutually beneficial. The students at Columbia got real world experience in investigative journalism and the Franklin Center’s improved transparency and accountability in Illinois’ government. The success of their partnership was seen not only in the press coverage that their stories received but in the fact that in less than three months the Illinois House voted to abolish scholarships. The Illinois Senate passed a separate measure barring children of campaign contributors from receiving legislative scholarships.

The countless hours and tireless work that Kevin and the students at Columbia put in is the reason this story came to light and this injustice may well be corrected.

If you are a reporter or a citizen journalist interested in getting involved in non-profit journalism, please email Info@FranklinCenterHQ.org.

For more information on Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity please visit www.FranklinCenterHQ.org.

About the Illinois Statehouse News Bureau

The Illinois Statehouse News Bureau (ISN) is a group of journalists dedicated to covering issues of importance to Illinoisans. The ISN know that around the state of Illinois cash-strapped news organizations are cutting back in many areas including state government coverage, leaving voters less informed.  The ISN is committed to helping fill this void with objective, non-partisan news reports.

ISN is a product of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a non-profit, non-partisan organization. For more information on the Illinois Statehouse News Bureau please visit http://illinoisstatehousenews.com.

About the Franklin Center

Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity promotes social welfare and civil betterment by undertaking programs that promote journalism and the education of the public about corruption, incompetence, fraud, or taxpayer abuse by elected officials at all levels of government. Established as a 501 C3 in June of 2009, The Franklin Center is a nonpartisan organization that believes that new technology can advance the cause of transparency in government. The Franklin Center aims to educate, to advise and to train individuals and organizations from all backgrounds to become thorough, unbiased and responsible reporters well versed in new media techniques and journalistic integrity. For more information on the Franklin Center please visit www.FranklinCenterHQ.org.