Use extra lottery funds to produce more graduates

When has too much money ever been a problem?

And so it is with the Tennessee lottery scholarships.

So far, there is $315 million in reserve that has accumulated in the scholarship program since it was launched three years ago. That’s well above the $50 million reserve mandated by state law to keep the program solvent.

Now, the question for the Legislature is this: How should the scholarship program be expanded to use some of the extra money?

Given Tennessee’s history of budget problems, that question is going to be fun to work with. But we hope legislators remember that the point of the scholarship program was to make it easier for students to attend college. With that in mind, we believe the answer to the question should be whatever enables the largest number of students to get a college education.

The scholarships so far are helping 59,750 students attend colleges and technology centers in the state. The basic Hope Scholarship is $3,800 a year at four-year schools and $1,900 at two-year schools. To qualify, high school graduates must have a minimum ACT score of 21 or a 3.0 high school grade-point average.

Some officials have offered ideas:

? U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, who was a state senator and considered the architect of the lottery, asked lawmakers to consider using some or all of the money to expand the program for students. He suggested increasing the amounts of all the scholarships and targeting improvements to the need-based grants so more middle-income families could benefit.

He also suggested lowering to 2.75 the college GPA required to maintain the annual grants. He said this would increase graduation rates. Now, students must have a 2.75 GPA their freshman year but a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0 after that to continue receiving the scholarships.

? Higher-education officials say they want the $315 million kept in reserve as an endowment, with its investment earnings used to bolster scholarships based on need.

? University of Tennessee President John Petersen and Charles Manning, chancellor of the state Board of Regents, have proposed luring back to school adults who started college but didn’t finish. The plan would target about 60,000 Tennesseans ages 25 to 45.

? Robert Ruble, executive director of the Tennessee Student Assistance Corp., the state agency that administers the lottery scholarships and all state-based aid programs, would like to see more funding for the Tennessee Student Assistance Award. That program is based on financial need and is the state’s most important financial aid program for low-income students who don’t quality for lottery awards.

The question’s still there: What to do?

Perhaps a blend of the ideas by Cohen on the one hand and Petersen and Manning on the other will help the largest number of potential students earn a degree. That would fit the efforts of Gov. Phil Bredesen and others who want to improve the state’s ranking of 44th in the percentage of adults with bachelor’s degrees.

Currently, only 43 percent of students who enter the state’s public university and community college system graduate within six years. Boosting the earning power of Tennesseans is a laudable goal, with studies indicating that college graduates earn an average of $14,000 more per year than those with only a high school education.

Let’s be sure that, whatever we do with the extra money, the state ends up with more residents with a college education. That was the point all along.