Arkansas House panel endorses $5K scholarships for 4-year schools, $2,500 for 2-year

Ark. House panel endorses $5K lottery scholarships

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A House panel advanced legislation Monday that would use lottery proceeds to fund $5,000 college scholarships for eligible students attending four-year schools in Arkansas and $2,500 scholarships for those who go to two-year schools.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, also rejected parts of Gov. Mike Beebe’s plan to borrow some money set aside for local projects to help pay for budget needs.

The lottery scholarship bill now heads to the House for a vote, where 97 of that chamber’s 100 members have signed on as sponsors. Arkansas began selling lottery tickets in late September and officials expect to raise $112 million for the scholarships this year. The proposal now heads to the House floor for a vote.

To receive scholarships, students must complete the state’s Smart Core curriculum and either obtain a 2.5 grade-point average or score a 19 on the ACT.

Legislative leaders have said they expect more than 20,000 incoming freshmen, current college students and nontraditional students to receive lottery-funded scholarships beginning this fall.

“That is so far beyond the expectations we had last year when we were drafting this bill, which is astounding,” House Speaker Robbie Wills told the House Rules Committee before it endorsed the measure. “We’re really proud of this.”

The measure faced opposition from some of its sponsors who objected to a provision in the bill that would delay for one year the state’s tougher eligibility guidelines for students who graduate from one of the 52 schools the state has determined inflates grades. At those schools, 20 percent or more of students earned an A or B in math courses but scored below proficiency levels on corresponding state exams.

To be eligible for the lottery scholarships, students from those schools must earn a 2.5 GPA and score a 19 on the ACT or score at a proficient level or better on the state’s end-of-course exams.

The legislation also includes several other changes to the state law enacted last year that set up the lottery. Arkansas voters in 2008 approved a constitutional amendment authorizing the state to sell lottery tickets to raise money for college scholarships.

Rep. Jonathan Dismang, R-Harrison, said he believed the grade-inflation issue should have been considered separately from the lottery scholarship amounts.

“Instead, it’s grouped into this bill here, which forces all members to either vote against scholarships or vote for a policy issue,” Dismang said after the panel’s vote. Dismang, who is listed as a co-sponsor of the legislation, said he was considering asking that his name be removed from the bill.

A Senate panel was expected to consider an identical Senate bill setting the lottery scholarships on Tuesday.

The Legislature has been meeting since Feb. 8 for a session focused primarily on the state’s budget. The fiscal session is the first under an amendment approved by voters in 2008 requiring the Legislature to meet and budget annually.

One of Beebe’s budget proposals ran into opposition before the Joint Budget Committee on Monday. The panel stripped his plan to borrow $3.4 million from the Legislature’s portion of the General Improvement fund — surplus money typically sent to various one-time projects around the state — from several appropriations bills being drafted.

Beebe had proposed using the money for several budget needs, including redistricting costs and buying defibrillators for public schools.

“This is a plan to get rid of the General Improvement money for the Legislature from now on,” said Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs.

Rep. Bruce Maloch, co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said in recent years the fund balances for state agencies have totaled anywhere between $7 million and $20 million.

“I think we are talking about a relatively small amount, if any, that we would be giving up,” Maloch said.

The panel did include Beebe’s proposal to borrow $4.2 million from the fund for reimbursing county jails for housing state inmates and $1.6 million for the Department of Community Correction, which oversees the state’s parole and probation programs.

Beebe had proposed using a total of $9.2 million from the legislators’ portion of the fund and $3 million from his portion for the budget needs. The governor had proposed repaying the money with any fund balances that state agencies had at the end of the next fiscal year.

The Legislature last year had set aside $15 million of its $60 million General Improvement Fund in case of an economic downturn.

The state has cut its budget $206 million over the past year.