Cohen eyes making lottery scholarships harder to earn
NASHVILLE (AP) — At least one lawmaker is worried that Tennessee Lottery scholarships are too easy to earn and is considering raising the standard for future years.
Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis and prime sponsor of the lottery, suggested Monday to the Lottery Oversight Committee that the state should eliminate one of the standards students can now use to qualify for scholarships.
Students can qualify by getting either a 3.0 grade point average in high school or by making at least a 19 on the ACT test.
Cohen says the 19 ACT score allows too many students to qualify. He wants to make a 3.0 GPA the only qualification. That’s what is required in Georgia, which Tennessee modeled its scholarship program on.
“At this rate the program will be in the red by 2006 and there won’t be any money for pre-kindergarten,” Cohen said.
According to the constitutional amendment that allowed the lottery, pre-kindergarten programs would get any “excess” proceeds after all college scholarships are funded.
Cohen presented the committee a memorandum from Brian Noland, associate executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, saying THEC projects 65 percent of all Tennessee high school graduates will qualify for the scholarships under present guidelines.
“Given the broad scope of the (scholarship) program, the staff projects that many of these students may require remedial and developmental instruction,” Noland wrote. “The minimum ACT score for inclusion in the (scholarship) program also serves as the ‘cut score’ for placement in such programs; sub-scores below 19 automatically place the student into developmental studies instruction.”
Noland estimates that eliminating the ACT provision would, after the program matures in four years, mean 18,000 fewer students would qualify. That would translate into a savings of $56 million to the scholarship program.
Cohen said he is considering whether to add new requirement to another bill that is making several other changes to the scholarship program.
If the change is made it would not apply to students qualifying under the current requirements for college classes beginning this fall. It would most likely go into effect for the 2005-06 academic year.