The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "scholarships" ...
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Rotten to the Core (McKay Scholarship Series)
The story exposes fraud, mismanagement, and dangerous abuses in Florida's $150-million-a-year scholarship program. The story showed that the Florida Department of Education has almost no oversight over the schools receiving funds.
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"Congressional Scholarship Violations"
The Dallas Morning News reports that U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson used her political power to benefit family members. Reporters revealed the Johnson "steered tens of thousands of dollars in college scholarships" during the span of several years to "four of her own relatives," and to two of a "top aide."
Tags: Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson; Congressional Black Caucus Foundation; ethics; Democrat
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NCAA: Mixed Messages
The phrase “student-athlete” has been used for a number of years, but recently it seems unsuitable for college athletics. In this series, a number of issues are spotlighted and they include “academics, the arms race, television money, the use of likenesses and images, and the myth of the four-year scholarship”. The main purpose of this series was to display the recent activities of college athletics and let you decide if the phrase “student-athlete” still applies.
Tags: athletic department; FOIA; Florida State; Rutgers University; sports; networks; money; grades; classroom; education
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Football Scholarships
This story investigates how a number of football players that play for Kent State received full ride scholarships. They received these scholarships without the ACT scores to receive them or any scholarships for that matter. Furthermore, there are a number of other students who have the grades and ACT scores to receive these scholarships, but don’t because the money is all used up.
Tags: college; athletics; athletic department; students; education; football field; players; Kent State University; Director of Admissions
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Secret Scholarships
This series reveals a number of scholarships being awarded to "campaign donors, politically connected families and, in at least one instance, a lawmaker's relative." Also, it reveals that many scholarship recipients are required by law to be represented by lawmakers when they receive their scholarships, which many were not. Further, these scholarship programs are practically unregulated and many experts believe the money should be given to those most in need.
Tags: education; funds; Columbia College Chicago; General Assembly; district; financial support; tuition; money
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The Tuition Tax Credit
"Arizona began a groundbreaking tax credit program that steered public revenue to private hands to distribute private-school scholarships." This program was to help the poor obtain the same educational opportunities and lower the cost of education. But this isn't the case, which this series reveals in multiple articles, because the poor still attend public schools.
Tags: Tax Credit; Public revenues; Private-school; Scholarships; Poor; Public schools; Nonprofit organizations; State; Federal; Education; Arizona; FOIA
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NCAA: Mixed Messages
The series of nine stories focuses on the major changes in college athletics. “Academics and leaders of the reform movement have debated and lobbied for two decades about the need for change.” But the magnitude of college athletics suggests a change is impossible. This series focuses on, “the biggest and best football conference, looked at the money brought in and the issues raised by the rush to be successful, the disparity between coaching salaries and the scholarship money afforded the athletes, what top athletes might be worth in an open market, and the creative efforts universities go to in order to fund athletic programs.”
Tags: College; Athletics; Academics; Football; Southeastern Conference; FOIA
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"Scrutinizing Scholarships"
"Each member of the Illinois General Assembly, the state’s legislative body, can give up to eight one-year scholarships away to any Illinois public university student." When deciding on the scholarship recipients, lawmakers can pick any rubric they want to choose them. In fact, "lawmakers awarded 196 scholarships to relatives of campaign contributors." These scholarships affect the universities because the scholarships are like tuition waivers, which leave the bill for the universities. Further, "university officials note the GA scholarship program costs their institutions about $12 million per year."
Tags: Illinois; FOIA; General Assembly; University
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Concerns in Happy Valley
Penn State's football coach Joe Paterno is the winningest coach in Division I history despite the many criminal charges against his program's players over the years. A database was created using computer assisted reporting to analyze players' Pennsylvania court records over the last seven years.
Tags: Nittany Lions; off-campus; scholarship; NCAA; CAR; Football Bowl Subdivision; Big Ten; linebacker;
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Politics, scholarship and the Armenian Genocide
The first story in the series documented the resignation of Donald Quataert, a distinguished American scholar, who stepped down from the chair of the Georgetown University-based Institute of Turkish Studies. Quataert said he had been forced out by a defunding threat from the Government of Turkey. Several board members also resigned and said political infringement of academic freedom was the reason. The second story in the series looks at evidence of a deliberate attempt to maintain Turkish state control of the U.S. nonprofit. Present and former Turkish ambassadors controlled the endowment that provided almost all the funding for the scholarly institute at the time of Quataert's resignation. Also, founding members of the institute as well as endowment trustees had been party to Ankara's decades-long campaign to suppress international recognition of the Armenian Genocide.
Tags: Armenian Genocide; Institute of Turkish Studies; Turkish scholars; improper financial control; Middle East Studies Association; public denial; politics versus academics