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Originally the students were awarded $500, but city officials said taxpayer dollars could not go towards funding private purposes.
Two Pasadena students will receive over $5,000 raised by community members after their $500 city-funded scholarships were canceled by the city attorney.
Support and funds come from organizations like FIEL, Houston Millennials, and Miss Texas Pasadena along with other titleholders. Ana Pineda is a future Texas A&M University student and was originally awarded one of the $500 scholarships. She said she was devastated when she found out the scholarship was canceled.
“I was really unsure whether I was making the right decision to continue studying or not,” Pineda said. “I was really upset and it made me doubt my abilities. It made me think if maybe I didn’t work hard enough. If as a minority I didn’t deserve success.”
Last week, the same students were notified by Pasadena’s Mayor Jeff Wagner that they would receive $1,000 from a donor separate from the money collected by the community. In a statement, Wagner said, “The hard work of these young ladies should not be denied because (Councilman Emmanuel Guerrero) doesn’t know how to do his job”. The scholarships were originally canceled because the city said it’s against Texas law to award taxpayer dollars for private purposes.
Guerrero was at Pasadena City Council on Tuesday for a press conference. He said he still feels disrespected by other members of the administration who canceled the $500 scholarships while he was out of town.
“Calling me a ‘junior councilmember’… The mayor also released a statement saying that he found a private donor, one of his friends, to be able to donate and double these scholarships,” Guerrero said. “Okay, so you want a white knight moment?”
The Houston-area advocacy group, FIEL, is working with Guerrero and is calling for the city attorney who pulled the scholarships to step down. FIEL’s executive director, Cesar Espinosa, said the two students come from Pasadena High School. The school is 96% Latino and mostly made up of economically disadvantaged students, he said.
“And when other people try to step up, try to make amends by offering discretionary funding to these folks, the city went ahead and canceled this scholarship in public, trying to make fun of the fact that Councilmember Guerrero had even offered this, to begin with,” Espinosa said.
Guerrero said other council members have used their district’s discretionary funds for gift cards and buying turkeys. However, Espinosa said whether other council members have also gifted money is speculation.
“It’s not fair that they’re doing this in something that was done in good faith, yet they used the money for their own personal benefit. And unfortunately, I don’t want to make any assumptions, but I know that we’re gonna find a lot of stuff in there that has just been swept under the rug.”
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