* On Sunday, the Chicago Tribune demanded that Senate President John Cullerton allow a floor vote on a bill to abolish the legislative scholarship program…

Yet the Illinois Senate probably won’t get around to voting on a bill to abolish this irredeemably corrupt program, even though the House voted Wednesday to do just that. What’s standing in the way? Senate President John Cullerton.

For years — years — the Chicago Democrat has refused to allow a vote on any of several measures that would kill the scholarships. He insists the program should be reformed rather than scrapped, though there’s been no meaningful effort to do so. Lately his excuse is that he wants to review all state university waivers instead of focusing only on those handed out by lawmakers, which is like saying there’s no point in wiping that big dirty handprint off the kitchen counter until you’ve searched every corner of the upstairs closets for dust bunnies.

Let’s not play games here. There are at least three bills to abolish those scholarships sitting in committee in the Senate. The version filed by Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, is identical to the measure that just passed the House. It has 31 co-sponsors, more than enough votes to pass. That list includes the entire Republican caucus. But there are Democrats on the list, too, and they ought to be hammering Cullerton to stop blocking a vote.

Cullerton doesn’t want an up-or-down vote on the scholarships because he knows which way it will go. He’s not trying to fix things. He’s protecting the corrupt status quo. He’s running interference for the few lawmakers who don’t want to give up this lucrative political perk.

* Gov. Pat Quinn also tossed in his two cents…

Gov. Pat Quinn ratcheted up the pressure on Senate President John Cullerton Monday in an attempt to end a decade’s old perk allowing state lawmakers to hand out university scholarships.

Talking with reporters, Quinn called the controversial tuition waiver program “political scholarships,” owing to the program’s reputation of abuse by some lawmakers. He urged Cullerton, D-Chicago, to call legislation abolishing the waivers for a vote.

“I really feel that its time for the Illinois Senate to step up and do what I’ve urged for two years in a row, that the whole political scholarship program be abolished, especially be in these times of austerity,” Quinn said.

Quinn’s call comes after the Illinois House last week voted 79-25 to end the program, which allows members of the House and Senate to dole out scholarships to students in their districts.

* Gatehouse lays out the next steps…

A spokeswoman for Cullerton said the measure, Senate Bill [2914], will go to the Senate Executive Committee, where it then will be assigned to the Subcommittee on Special Issues.

“If it passes the Executive Committee, there will be a floor vote,” said Cullerton’s press secretary, Rikeesha Phelon. “These bills will follow the normal legislative process. They will be heard in committee. Proponents and opponents will have the opportunity to testify, and there will be an opportunity to vote. If it passes, it moves on.”

Subcommittees typically have only three members, two of them Democrats. That means fewer Democrats are exposed to political blowback if they kill bills that might be popular with the public.

The SB2914’s sponsor, Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, said he thinks his legislation will get fair treatment.

“It looks very possible to resolve this issue this session. … We’ve got to make sure the money goes toward helping students. I have every expectation this will get a fair hearing.”

* The bill is currently in the Executive Subcommittee on Education. Two of the subcommittee’s three members are co-sponsors. No hearing is scheduled yet, but the bill is likely to be sent to the full Executive Committee if the chairperson, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, allows a vote. Lightford has strongly supported the scholarship program in the past.

If it passes subcommittee, you can probably expect a big round of news stories about how the proposal “advanced.” But if it does move, it will only advance to the Executive Committee, where, as they say, it’s fate remains uncertain. The Democrats in charge of the committee are mostly opposed to abolishing the scholarship program.

In other words, only believe there’s progress if the bill actually gets out of Exec.

And then there’s the issue of whether the House will take up the Senate bill after passing its own House bill. But I’ll save that for another time.