By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — The legislative committee that oversees the state lottery decided today to recommend that lottery-funded college scholarships be set at $5,000 per year to a attend a four-year school and $2,500 per year to attend a two-year school.
The committee will recommend to the General Assembly, which convenes for the 2010 fiscal session next week, that scholarship amounts be the same for both incoming college students and students already in college, despite a recommendation from Gov. Mike Beebe that students already in college receive smaller awards.
Emily Jordan-Cox, Beebe’s policy director, told the panel the governor recommends that “current achievers,” or students already in college who meet eligibility requirements, receive $2,600 per year to attend a four-year school and $1,300 per year to attend a two-year school.
Beebe also believes lawmakers should base their calculations on a conservative projection of $100 million in annual net lottery proceeds, rather than state Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue’s projection of $112 million, Jordan-Cox said.
“If the governor’s conservative projection turns out to be too low, he would rather use excess lottery revenue to expand eligibility and increase the award amounts, if possible, rather than being too liberal and saddling future policy makers with the task of reducing eligibility and cutting scholarship award amounts,” she said.
The lottery has been spoken of mainly as a way to help high school students, and students already in college may not have the same expectations, Jordan-Cox said.
“Somebody might ought to remind him (Beebe) that their parents vote too,” said Sen. Terry Smith, D-Hot Springs.
Rep. Randy Stewart, D-Kirby, said he is hearing from constituents that current students should receive the same amounts as new students.
“I think all of them understood that they would be part of this lottery scholarship when it was given to them to vote on. I think they’re going to be really, really angry if we don’t take care of them at the same level we do the other students,” he said.
Passailaigue testified that he considered his projection of $112 million in net lottery proceeds “conservative.”
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said later the governor’s recommendation reflects his desire “to make sure that we can keep whatever promise that we make to these incoming students on scholarship levels and not repeat what has happened in the past.”
“This all grows out of his direct experience in the Senate when they ran out of money” for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship in 2002, DeCample said.
DeCample said Beebe will stand by his recommendation, but he did not know how actively the governor would push the issue during the session.
“It’s too early to know,” DeCample said.
The scholarship amounts the committee recommended match the recommendations of Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who led the drive to put a constitutional amendment creating a state lottery on the November 2008 ballot.
“I am pleased that the committee recommended significant scholarship dollars for Arkansas students who are currently in college,” Halter said today.
The committee recommended a $41.5 million cap on scholarships for current students. Lawmakers said they expect to spend $42.2 million in the next school year on scholarships for new students.
More than 20,000 new and current students are expected to receive lottery-funded scholarships in the next school year, lawmakers said.
At least $8 million would go to nontraditional students under the committee’s recommendations.
