Broken Promise: Dickinson students may not have COM scholarships available after city pulls back • Mayor: The city is not in a position to provide funds right now; COM needs to offer more data • COM president refutes mayor’s claims of “mismanagement” College of the Mainland is defending its much-ballyhooed Opening Doors Promise Scholarship after Dickinson Mayor Travis Magliolo claimed during a recent city council meeting that it was “mismanaged” and “illegal.” The mayor later clarified his comments, explaining that he was frustrated because the city had been publicly criticized by a father who believed that the recent withdrawal of funding by the Dickinson Management District had prevented his son from attending College of the Mainland. The Open Doors Promise Scholarship is a “last-dollar” scholarship available to high school students residing in the five communities within the College of the Mainland taxing district—Texas City, La Marque, Hitchcock, Santa Fe, and Dickinson. High school students in those communities who qualify for the scholarship must first exhaust all other means of funding to attend classes at COM before applying for the Promise Scholarship. According to College of the Mainland data, since 2021, 615 students have received some form of financial assistance through the Promise program. This totals approximately $951,000 in local scholarship funding. Dickinson students make up roughly 26% of those receiving financial aid through the program. On average, students have received $1,316 from the Promise scholarship since it started. Tuition costs, excluding college fees, for a two-year degree or certificate at the College of the Mainland are about $4,620. “We recently had a student who just needed $300 to enroll in class,” said COM President Helen Castellanos Brewer. “The difference between that student attending college was just $300. That’s what the Promise program is really about.” When the program launched, Texas City’s Economic Development Corporation decided to fund the scholarship with $1 million to help Texas City residents who graduated from high school attend college. The Texas City EDC still views it as an economic development investment in workforce growth, officials said. Funding to send Dickinson graduates to the College of the Mainland mainly came from the Dickinson Management District. The voter-approved organization, which has little oversight by the city council, uses sales tax revenue to support economic development projects within the city. When promoted to city residents, the district was supposed to fund projects such as infrastructure and business improvements within the city. In 2021, the Dickinson Management District Board contributed $301,576 in tax dollars to the Promise Scholarship fund, with the caveat that financial aid could only go to recent high school or GED graduates who live within the city limits between the ages of 17 and 19. According to COM data, $249,475 of those funds went to financial aid for 160 Dickinson students between 2021 and 2024. College figures show that Dickinson is the second-largest feeder into the program, just behind Texas City, which has had 166 Promise scholarship students. But when College of the Mainland returned this year to seek more funding to keep the program going for Dickinson students, City Attorney Nghiem Doan, who also serves as legal counsel to the management district, said such funding was outside the purview of the management district and thus was an illegal contribution. That caught several off guard, especially Jacob McNeal, a Dickinson high school graduate who was hoping that scholarship would help fund part of his tuition at College of the Mainland this fall. He didn’t find out about the funding being pulled until after he had already enrolled for classes at COM. Jacob and his father, Travis, went to the council on July 8, asking for the city to step in since the management district had dropped funding. Travis McNeal returned to the next council meeting and made the same plea. “The Promise is being relied on by many new voters, and how will this affect the viewpoints and political opinions of these young adults about the current administration in this town and whether or not they are concerned with the education and well-being of those who were relying on this scholarship,” McNeal said. “I think of all the children who were promised the scholarship.” McNeal went on to criticize some members of the city staff and the overall local government. That is what prompted the mayor to make the comments he did, which college officials saw as a direct attack on COM. “The program is well managed and has helped many students,” Brewer said. “The funds are audited, and every dollar spent is accounted for as having gone directly to help students attend college.” Magliolo said that he was not directly attacking the college; instead, his frustration was with how the management district board, which appoints its own members and is not accountable to the city or the council, handled funding projects that were “illegal,” including the Promise Scholarship. He clarified that he did not mean to imply the college mismanaged the program; instead, he believed the management district had mismanaged that and other projects it funded. However, Magliolo said he doesn’t have enough data from the college even to consider exploring other options through the city. “What return on our investment are we getting beyond sending kids to school?” he asked. “Are they staying in the area and contributing to our economy? Is Dickinson getting a return other than feeling good about helping kids go to school? I haven’t seen any data to support that. “I want us to have a strong relationship with COM, but for now it will have to be the type of support that doesn’t require taxpayers' money.” Brewer is worried the mayor’s initial comments could cause other communities and corporate donors to second-guess a program she says is functioning as intended. Of the $1.99 million contributed to the fund since its inception, 70%—$1.4 million—has come from public taxpayers’ funds. The remaining $595,000—30%—comes from private donations. Regarding other funding options through the City of Dickinson, such as from the general budget or EDC, those are currently off the table. Interim City Manager Chaise Gary noted that the city is financially strained, having recently stabilized its finances to restore its bond rating. “We have many priorities right now, including projects like roads, infrastructure, and hiring police,” he said. “We’re just not in a position to fund college scholarships with tax dollars at this time.” For Dickinson students like Jacob McNeal, some good news arrived Monday (7/29/2025) when retired College of the Mainland President Warren Nichols and his wife, Chris, announced that a portion of a scholarship fund they established during his presidency would cover part of the shortfall. Their contribution will enable new Dickinson Promise-eligible students to register for 12 credit hours in both Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, meeting the scholarship’s full-time enrollment requirement. College officials said about $52,000 remains in the Dickinson fund to support this effort. This will help address the gap in the upcoming semesters. Still, Brewer says much work remains to find other funding sources as the number of Dickinson students eligible to attend continues to grow.

Posted by i45NOW TJ Aulds at 2025-07-30 14:24:59 UTC