Police, firefighters’ children losing college aid

Many years ago, when Lindsey Bohach was a little girl and her daddy was still alive, the state of Nevada made a promise: It would pay for the college education of kids whose parents died while serving as police officers or firefighters.

Then, in 2001, a felon with a high-powered rifle killed John Bohach, a Reno police officer. Lindsey was 11. She's 20 now, studying at the University of Nevada, Reno. She hopes to become a doctor.

"I really do like helping people," she said.

Except there's a problem.

The Trust Fund for the Education of Dependent Children is broke. As of March 11, there was only $3,685.76 left in the account, according to Jane Nichols, the higher education system's vice chancellor for academic and student affairs. It'll probably drop to $3,000 by the end of the semester.

In all, the fund has paid for the college education of 18 students since its inception in 1995. Six students -- including Bohach -- are currently using it at universities and community colleges across the state.

Something needs to be done right now, higher education leaders say, or the fund could be gone while students are still depending on it.

"It's not right to make a promise and then run out of money," said Kevin Page, a member of the higher education system's Board of Regents.

The board is expected to vote next month on whether to ask the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee for an influx of cash to keep the fund going until the full Legislature can replenish it next year.

In the meantime, Page is asking for private donations. He found out about the crisis because his brother is a Las Vegas police officer.

The fund was established 15 years ago and $20,000 was put into the account. The law mandated that the Board of Regents use the fund to pay for the college education of the children of police officers and firefighters who were killed in the line of duty. Later, volunteer ambulance drivers were added.

Over the years, the state took back about $16,000 and then made two more deposits into the account, for $33,000 and for $50,000. No money has been appropriated since 2005.

While all that was going on, John Bohach, a U.S. Army veteran, was investigating crimes in Reno.

In 2001, after 13 years as a cop, he responded as backup after a suspected drunken driver fled a traffic stop and barricaded himself inside his house.

The suspect, a felon named Larry Peck, was armed. Bohach ducked behind a parked van. But the van had no engine in it, and when Peck started firing, a bullet went right through the van and killed Bohach, who was 39.

And so 11-year-old Lindsey grew up without a dad.

She persevered. She completed the sixth grade, graduated high school with high honors, and chose UNR for college, aware of the promise that the cost of her course fees and materials would be taken care of. She's a biology major and a Spanish minor. She plans on going to Spain this summer as part of her Spanish immersion studies.

But without the trust fund, she doesn't know how she could keep going to college.

"It allows me to focus on my education and not have that concern about how my tuition is going to be paid," she said.

Her mom is remarried to a retired police officer who recently had to go back to work as a security guard to make ends meet.

"I did pay the price of not having my father," Bohach said. "If he were here, he'd be helping me get through school."

Nichols said the fund is going through about $25,000 a year. She said the finance committee would have to supply that much to keep the fund going for now.

She said if the money doesn't come in, the higher education system and the financial aid experts at the schools can probably figure out a way to keep the students in school. But that's not a long-term solution.

Both she and Page, the regent, said continually asking the Legislature to replenish the fund might not be the best plan.

Page hopes to raise enough money in the private sector to create an endowment. An endowment is a fund that's large enough to live off the interest earned. Page figures he'd need to gather a few hundred thousand dollars for that to work in this case.

So far, he got a $1,000 donation from the Police and Fire Emerald Society of Nevada back in December, when he first discovered the problem.

He wants to hit up corporations and local foundations, too.

With the state as broke as it is, he figures donations might be the fund's only hope.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.