History of      
Scholarships & Amateurism

First, a postsecondary education institution becomes accredited which gives it access to government funding. The government primarily provides grants for education, not scholarship funds. Students have access to government funding through what is known as the Pell Grant at an accredited institution. However, these funds are limited and must be distributed through ALL accredited institutions. The accredited institution then must raise private funding from other sources to fund the business which is primarily achieved through sporting events or donors and sponsors. Another common term used for donors and sponsors is boosters.

A donor is an individual or organization that provides funds that can be used for any means determined by the recipient. In contrast, a sponsor is an individual or organization that provides funds that must be used for a specific purpose determined by the provider of the funds. This is the reason across America's school-campus-buildings are primarily named after an individual(s) or an organization(s). If an individual(s) or an organization(s) provides the funding to build a new athletic complex they are sponsoring that project. 

So what is a scholarship? Remember, you must always understand the source of funding in all business systems. A scholarship, according to IRS Topic. 421, "is non-taxable income so long as the funds received are used for the purpose of enrollment at an educational institution or necessary supplies required for courses at the educational institution." The source of funding for a scholarship is from other people's money, not the government's, and is primarily raised through the institutions' revenue streams or from donors and sponsors which the recipient does not have to pay taxes on. If you are providing the funding for anything in life then by nature you have an interest in how those funds are going to be used. This is the reason students primarily 'apply' for scholarship funds and are subject to an 'objective' eligibility criterion.  

When students apply for scholarship funds it is primarily through private foundations in which donors and sponsors can receive a tax-deduction for their contribution. These private foundations are referred to as a scholarship provider that must be recognize by the IRS to administer funds on an object and non-discriminatory basis. The education system is fundamentally funded by donors and sponsors and that is the reason Affirmative Action from a macro perspective is not associated with race, but was enacted so that those that can't afford postsecondary education can have a fair opportunity to be a recipient of the funding provided from donors and sponsors.

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Since private funding for postsecondary education is limited to those that have access- the Federal government created the Department of Education that is responsible for the management of funding for students education through Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans. The only difference between the loans is that the interest on subsidized loans is paid by the U.S. Department of Education for a fixed period of time. So what is the source of funding for these loans? The federal government operates on taxation of its' citizens income so therefore the logical conclusion is that the majority of funding is from tax payers money.

Now, all the students are being held accountable by bearing the responsibility to that debt for a system that was designed by the federal government. The system of student loans is broken because the funding for the loan program is primarily through taxation from the citizens which is then getting loaned back to the next generation. There is a reason why former students continue to go further into debt and donors and sponsors are still providing a majority of the funding for the education system. 

The comprehensive solution to student loan debt is not forgiveness, but to decrease the amount future students have to borrow. America must use another source of funding that does not come through taxation and can be used for the purpose of education. The Scholarships 4 Us® Program provides a national standardize platform to revolutionize how we use the billion dollar after school sports and youth activities market so citizens' money can go directly to funding the education system.