By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Seven bills designed to consolidate and improve the various college scholarships the state offers were approved Monday by the Senate.
Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, sponsor of the bills, said the measures were developed from recommendations made last year by the Task Force on High Education, Redemption, Retention and Graduation Rates.
That study found that many of the scholarships the state offers go unused because few people know about them and they target a small segment. The study recommended consolidating some of the scholarships and offering more need-based scholarships.
Among the measures approved Monday were Senate Bill 850, which would broaden the Governor’s Opportunity “Go” Scholarships to include non-traditional students. It also would offer scholarships for “qualified certificate programs” and lower the income requirements for eligibility.
SB 852 would amend the Teacher Opportunity Program to make it easier for teachers to repay college loans, and SB 853 would repeal the STAR, Minority Teacher Scholars and Minority Masters scholarships and create one teacher program instead of three.
Others approved were:
- SB 854, which clarifies the rules for the scholarships for military dependents to make sure they match the law.
- SB 855, which adds a continuing eligibility requirement of 2.0 grade point average for scholarships for children and spouses of public service employees who died on the job.
- SB 856, which clarifies the requirements for the Governor’s Scholars Program Awards.
- SB 857, which repeals the Faculty/Administrator Development Fellows Program because there have not been any participants in more than seven years.
The Senate rejected SB 858 by Broadway, a proposal to help repay the loans of state workers who are working on their master’s degree. The bill, which needed 18 votes, received just 8 votes. Sixteen voted against the bill, which proposed repaying loans of up to $4,000 a year for up to five years.
