OMG Scott’s Tots IRL! Billionaire Chicago Family Cancels Promise Of

Forget The Simpsons predicting everything — an excruciating plotline from of The Office has just come to life!

In Season 6, Episode 12 of the hit sitcom, titled “Scott’s Tots,” Michael Scott “realizes that he cannot keep a decade-old promise to pay college tuition for several children,” per the description. He has to break the news to a room full of mostly Black students. It’s truly painful to watch. In a terrible twist of fate, this exact plot line is playing out now for a bunch of Chicago kids!

According to WBEZ Chicago on Wednesday, the Schuler Scholars program has abruptly shut down — leaving tons of students with a last-minute financial issue just weeks before the school year begins.

Related: Demi Moore Wants To Normalize THIS ‘Taboo Topic’!

The program was founded by (former) billionaire Jack Schuler, a healthcare investor and former Abbott Laboratories executive, and his daughter over two decades ago to help send low-income and first-generation Chicago kids to college. But last month Jack sent an email to the program’s participants announcing he will no longer be funding their education!

Marcus Jackson, a participant, told the outlet:

“I’m just kind of at a loss for words. I just hope something can be done so that everyone can stay in school and not have to be in debt the rest of [their lives].”

He added:

“Because nobody asked for this. We all put in the work … We literally did what we’re supposed to do.”

Hundreds of students were promised $2,500 a year plus thousands more to cover health insurance. While an email announcing the end of the program included an apology, according to Jackson, it wasn’t enough to make up for this horrible situation, he said:

“That doesn’t make me feel any better. It doesn’t pay the bills. It definitely doesn’t send us through school.”

And when you realize what the kids went through to get this scholarship, it makes it so much s**ttier!!

So why is this happening? Well, former employees claimed Jack has been struggling financially. Reportedly, his estimated personal wealth has dropped from $1.1 billion to $200 million — that’s still a lot of money, though! Just not enough that he wants to give any of it away anymore. Earlier this year, the Schuler family laid off almost all of their scholarship program staff and started winding down operations, even though in May they were telling everyone things would be fine.

Robert Kelchen, who researches higher education funding at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, explained how the kids picked out colleges based on the promise of the scholarship:

“This affected where they went. And [the Schulers] were telling students in May they’ll get the money and then they changed their mind in July — that’s where it’s really devastating. … If they knew months ago, there’s a chance that colleges could have helped them, but that money has all been given out.”

Jackson reflected:

“If I was in a position of power, like Mr. Schuler, and I was promising all these kids all these things, I would hope I could just stay true to my word.”

Robert also noted how strange it is for a scholarship program to end so suddenly and without honoring those already receiving money — going so far as to say the students would have been better off NEVER SIGNING UP for the program. Wow.

And, btw, the students had to do a lot more than just fill out an application senior year in hopes of securing some cash for their upcoming schooling. This was practically a full-time job!

In exchange for counseling, tutoring, and help to pay tuition, high school students had to sign a contract promising to fulfill a long list of requirements and live under the watchful eye of the program in order to secure their financing. Stephany Flores, a rising junior at Pomona College in California, dished:

“We gave ourselves to this organization for four years, with some of us even compromising our mental health. The Schuler coaches played a really big role in almost being our therapist … because we needed to fulfill these highly demanding requirements in order to get that scholarship.”

So what are those requirements? Per the outlet, students had to maintain a near-perfect GPA, take AP classes every year, and attend regular meetings with staff. They also had to submit an application and go on a camping trip before the start of their freshman year. They spent their entire high school experiences working towards this money — only to suddenly have it ripped away. And that’s not even accounting for what happens after high school.

In order to get the $10,000 scholarship, students — again, who were mostly people of color — could only attend a college handpicked by the Schulers. And, yeah, you probably guessed it. This list was definitely racially inappropriate, whether they intended so or not. While no establishments were named, the outlet said the list included mostly small liberal arts schools that were made up of mostly white students — as if those are the only good schools out there. Ugh.

A counselor who was laid off from the Schuler Scholars program in May discussed the difficulty of this rule, sharing:

“A lot of students who go to the ‘Schuler-preferred’ option end up transferring and dropping out because it was really racist, or they did not feel safe or they couldn’t find communities that they identified with in that place.”

The ex-employee, who was speaking anonymously due to a NDA signed to receive severance pay, continued:

“I think [Jack] Schuler was often trying to put a square peg in a round hole and impose what the Schulers thought was best on to students rather than listening to what [students] thought was best for them.”

Jeez.

Now, think of all those students in schools they don’t really like and don’t feel they belong in now scrambling to figure out a way to pay for it! Let’s not forget most of these tiny liberal arts schools probably had higher tuition to begin with than other options!

Jackson, who is Black and at Lawrence University, spoke out on this challenge, saying that he wanted to go to a big uni because he grew up in a big city, but he landed with the small college in Wisconsin to get the funding he’d worked so hard for. He was just one of a handful of other Black students, making his first year really hard. He’d finally started to get used to the school and found his community in his sophmore year, but now without the Schuler scholarship, he will likely have to get a second job in order to stay. He reflected:

“‘Go to these schools that you don’t really want to go to, and we’ll just pay for you.’ And then you go to the schools that are mad expensive and where there’s only a few people that look like you. And then they’re like, ‘Oh, sorry, we can’t pay for your school anymore. But find some way to stay there. And good luck.’”

A representative for the Illinois attorney general, who is in charge of enforcing state rules regulating charities and foundations, said they couldn’t comment on potential or pending litigation. Sadly, Stephany pointed out that she (and probably others) would like to pursue legal action but it’s unlikely to happen:

“I just don’t think that anyone in the program has the resources to be able to do that, sadly. And it kind of sucks, right? That we need to have resources in order to fight for the resources that were promised to us.”

The Schuler family didn’t respond to the outlet’s request for a comment. SMH. They sure look like some greedy MFs right now. The least they could do is be more honest about their decision. Or, you know, help all these kids continue paying for school like they promised! Even Michael Scott tried to do more than they have after canceling his promised scholarships! Just look at the similarities in the episode (below):

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[Image via Peacock]

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