Perspective: Unseemly bias, unneeded benefit

Some 1,100 students already have applied for 30 openings at Florida State University's medical school this fall. But it may be that only 28 of the slots are fairly awarded. By law, the other two must be reserved for students or graduates of the five U.S. service academies -- in preference, if necessary, to applicants with better grade-point averages and superior Medical College Admissions Test scores.

Similar quotas apply to the University of South Florida, where 1,480 hopefuls have bid for 100 openings, and to the University of Florida, where 1,794 vie for 96 positions. Because their capacity is so limited, Florida's medical schools are among the most selective in the nation. Service academy graduates often meet the high standards and are accepted. Now, some who don't measure up may go to the head of the line.

This is not the fault of Congress but of the Florida Legislature, where a handful of influential members were catering to the pique of Michael Spinelli, a lobbyist and political fund-raiser from Orlando. Spinelli's son, a Naval Academy midshipman, had been turned down by the UF medical school. On the last night of the last regular session, the Spinelli amendment found its way into a comprehensive health care bill that the conspirators assumed Gov. Jeb Bush would have to sign. When he did, he denounced the Spinelli amendment and promised to take steps to undo it. But he has been silent about it since.

Meanwhile, the House Committee on Colleges and Universities has voted to preserve the Spinelli amendment. Republican legislators who denounce quotas in any other form scrambled clumsily to protect this quota, as if the lives of troops in combat were on the line.

They ignored not only a plea from the medical school deans, but also a dramatic appearance by a UF medical student who is a West Point graduate. He is an Army captain who pointed out that the military academies, as academically rigorous as they are, do not focus on pre-med education. Though he spoke eloquently, it was to as little effect as if he had been addressing the dummies in a department store window.

The committee voted overwhelmingly to kill a bill repealing the Spinelli amendment. Rep. Leslie Waters, R-Seminole, was in the misguided majority. On cue from the House leadership, the committee chair would not even hear a motion to reconsider.

That should not be the end of it. With some belated leadership from the governor, it might not be.

Waters, we're sorry to say, is also the co-sponsor of legislation, approved by the committee on the same day, that entitles service academy students to receive Bright Futures scholarships as if they were enrolled in colleges in the state.

What's more, these grants averaging $1,600 a year would be available retroactively to Florida students who entered the academies up to four years ago. One legislator estimated this could cost $8-million. That would be a conspicuous extravagance in light of the Legislature's decision to save money by suspending Bright Futures scholarships during the next summer session. But what's a few million dollars of the taxpayers' money against such a splendid opportunity to pander?

Military academy cadets are already fortunate to have their tuition, lodging, books, meals and medical care at U.S. government expense, and they get a monthly stipend as well.

Florida Comptroller Robert Milligan, a retired Marine general by way of the U.S. Naval Academy, says that a state scholarship "is the last thing I would have needed."

What's more, Milligan points out, it would be inconsistent to subsidize military academy students without similarly assisting Florida students in out-of-state ROTC programs. However, that would start a fatal run on the Bright Futures program, the costs of which are already worrying the Legislature even though grants are restricted to student achievers who stay in Florida for their college studies.

The military academy scholarships are the unworthy part of otherwise good legislation (HB 459) that would allow qualifying students up to seven years after high school to begin receiving their Bright Futures scholarships, and an additional seven years if they have gone into the military.

This is a reasonable accommodation to students who want to serve their country before beginning college. There is nothing reasonable about scholarships for cadets whose major expenses are already paid by the federal government, and that part should be amended out of the bill. The committee was denied the chance to do so, but there will be another.

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