BETWEEN THE LINES: Scholarship Lottery Sees Changes

Change in the scholarship part of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery is inevitable.

Put simply, the lottery doesn’t produce the kind of revenue necessary to deliver scholarship money at the levels that have been in effect.

Arkansans continue to buy the scratch-off tickets and play the national and state draw games, especially when the jackpots soar.

The problem is projected revenue just doesn’t match up to the demand for scholarship money from graduating high school students and nontraditional students in Arkansas.

Mind you, that demand has itself been encouraging, suggesting that more Arkansans see the need to attend college and to graduate. Over the life of the lottery, more have actually shown interest in a full four-year run, although the program has also beefed up two-year enrollments.

That might change.

A proposal advanced this week by the House of Representatives could so alter the program as to discourage students from entering four-year institutions in favor of a two-year program.

In the past, eligible students got a fixed sum each year they participated.

Those enrolled in four-year colleges and universities got considerably more than those enrolled in two-year institutions. The thinking, correctly, was it costs more to attend a four-year school.

When the lottery was established, the amount was $5,000 per year for four-year students, $2,500 per year for two-year students. The first cut the Legislature made to the program dropped those annual amounts to $4,500 and $2,250, respectively.

Whatever amount a student received the first year in, continued for each year the student remained scholarship-eligible. That practice will continue, despite coming changes.

Initially, four-year students were looking at $20,000 in scholarship money over four years, $5,000 for two years. That prospect was a huge difference-maker for students and led to increases in the college-going rate in this state. The growth still continued when the annual awards were dropped to lower levels.

Now, shift to the next crop of college applicants and what they can expect. The most they can expect from lottery scholarships may be $14,000 for four years, $4,000 for two.

Those are the maximum sums prospective college students would receive under House Bill 1295 by Rep.

Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia.

That’s the bill that cleared the House on Monday. Sen.

Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home, is its co-sponsor and has introduced an identical bill in the Senate.

There is still opportunity for amendments, but this appears to be the direction the Legislature is headed as it tries to balance lottery revenue with the scholarship awards.

Participating freshmen at four-year schools would get $2,000 the first year, then add $1,000 to the annual sum each successive year they remain in the program, maxing out at $5,000 for the year they are seniors.

Two-year students would get $2,000 each year they participate.

Arguably, the change favors enrollment in less-costly two-year programs. A successful two-year student will get $4,000 in scholarship money while a student in a costlier four-year program would get just $5,000 in the first two years.

No cut was going to be particularly palatable to students dependent on the money to go to school, of course. But why is the cut so great for those entering four-year programs?

This tiered system is supposed to encourage completion of degrees. The most money would come in the final two years of a four-year program as juniors would get $4,000 and seniors $5,000.

Still, the four-year total is much less than earlier four-year scholarship program participants could get.

It is not at all what incoming ninth-graders were led to believe they could count on if they studied hard and qualified for lottery scholarships when they graduate.

The question now is whether reduction of front-end money will deter college-going, especially in the four-year schools.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 02/20/2013

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