Lottery still at least one year away
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“At very best it will be about a year from now,” said Cooper. “We have a lot to do. We have to set up a mechanism and a way to spend the money for education. In doing this, we have to make sure we cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i.'”
November’s lottery referendum only lifted the state’s constitutional ban on a lottery. Before one can actually be implemented, it must first be approved by both houses of the General Assembly. This requirement, however, is expected to be merely a formality.
Cooper said preliminary work on implementing a lottery began last week as three state lottery committees started meeting. The first two will have the responsibility of creating the lottery’s framework and how specifically the lottery’s proceeds will be spent.
The responsibility of the third committee, of which Cooper is a member, will be to implement the recommendations of the first two committees into a working lottery system. During a meeting last week, Cooper said this committee heard testimony from a lottery official in South Carolina, the most recent state to adopt a lottery.
Currently, the biggest debate surrounding the lottery is on what basis to distribute the college scholarships to be made available by lottery proceeds – by need or by merit.
“In my opinion,” said Cooper, “we need to make sure we include the middle class, which gets left out so much, and look at merit and need, while still taking care of lower income folks.”
Under a plan reviewed last week, scholarships for state students would be based on both family income and grades.
The proposal allows for scholarship money to be available to all Tennessee students who graduate high school with at least a 3.0 GPA and whose family income is less than $100,000 a year.
The proposal would give the most money to the state’s poorer students – those whose family income is less than $36,000 a year. These students would receive $6,000 a year to attend a state institution. Those students with a family income between $36,000 and $100,000 a year would receive $4,000 to attend one of the state’s public institutions. Students would receive half of the allotted amounts, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively, if they choose to attend a Tennessee private college.
Also included in the proposal is a provision which addresses one of Cooper’s main concerns: the flight of Tennessee’s brightest students from the state.
Under the proposal, students with at least a 3.75 GPA and scores of at least 29 on the ACT exam would qualify for $6,000 plus scholarships, regardless of income.
It is unclear how long it will take for any scholarships to become available once the lottery becomes operational.