Brescia Scholarships 1999-2000: Funding, Eligibility, and Application Process

Scholarships are underway: the offices of the provincial Department of Education have prepared the calls for applications for family assistance. All 41,000 Brescia students in upper secondary schools, both public and private, can collect the documentation from their school secretaries.

Application forms must be submitted starting from September 1st until 12 p.m. on October 16th, either at the school secretariat or at the Province’s Public Education Office, located at via Musei 32 in Brescia (although the first location is recommended mainly for organizational reasons). The forms are also available for download on the Internet by visiting www.provincia.brescia.it.

To declare possession of the requirements and expenses, students (if of legal age) or their parents can use the self-certification system. We remind that the total amount of scholarship vouchers is one billion five hundred million lire, allocated to reimburse families (until the funds are exhausted) for school expenses incurred during the 1999-2000 year.

Interventions and requirements

“This is an important initiative,” says Mauro Parolini, provincial assessor, “which we want to test to support the right to study and implement the law on school parity. The intervention aims to help families in their educational responsibilities and facilitate the creation of an integrated school system.”

Special thanks to the school principals – he continues – for their operational cooperation.” Now, let’s go into detail. The requirements.

Eligible applicants for the call are all students of state or legally recognized upper secondary schools, including evening classes, excluding remedial courses. Additionally, students must not have failed more than once in high school; they must have obtained an average grade of at least 6/10 with no more than one remedial subject for those already attending secondary school, or a passing grade on the middle school exams for first-year students.

Another criterion is income. To participate in the program, the gross per capita income (total family income divided by the number of members) must not exceed 20 million lire.

Regarding the rankings: the total of one billion five hundred million lire is divided into two tiers: 800 million for families with expenses exceeding 2.5 million lire, and 700 million for the others.

The formation of the rankings will consider three variables: merit (grades obtained in the 1998-99 school year), taxable income (for 1998), and expenses incurred (during 1999-2000). The maximum score for each category is 10. For merit, for example, an average above 9 earns 10 points, a score between 6 and 6.5 (or sufficient) earns 1 point, an average over 7 up to 8 (or a distinct grade) earns 6 points.

For income, the rule is reversed: the lower the income, the higher the score. Ten points are awarded to families with a per capita income up to 8 million lire; only 2 points for those earning between 18 and 20 million. The scale varies in between.

Finally, expenses. These should include, among other things, costs for books and didactic materials, school and registration fees, tuition, costs for the cafeteria, and transportation. Ten points for expenses exceeding 5 million lire, 8 points for those between 4 and 5 million, decreasing to 2 points for costs from 500,000 to 1 million lire.

The rankings will be prepared by the Province’s Public Education Office. In case of equal scores, priority will be given to applications with the lowest income.

Details on the amount and distribution methods

The amount: the scholarship voucher will reimburse 50% of the expenses incurred by eligible families, up to a maximum of 2 million lire and a minimum of 300,000 lire. “The decision to divide the one billion five hundred million into two tiers,” says the assessor, correcting any impression of discrimination against public schools, “prevents the concentration of funds on those who have spent the most.”

Mauro Parolini also responds to the initiative of the provincial councilors from Ds, who filed a complaint with Oreco against the resolution approving the regulation of the scholarship vouchers.

“Opposition to their establishment is legitimate. What I don’t understand is why they don’t openly state their dissent and instead hide behind alleged procedural irregularities.” Regarding the controversial decision to relate the vouchers to the recently concluded year: “We did not issue the call to steer students towards public or private institutions, but to support families. Starting already in 1999-2000 rather than 2001 allows us to distribute more funds over the long term.”

Enrico Mirani