Bill would give tech students new way to get scholarships
NASHVILLE (AP) — High school students pursuing a technical career could qualify for lottery-funded scholarships with just a 3.0 grade-point average under legislation approved Wednesday by a Senate committee.
Currently, those students must have a 19 ACT score — no matter what their GPA is — to receive a $3,000 award to any state college or university or $1,500 to attend two-year community colleges.
In contrast, a student taking university-track classes has two ways to qualify for the scholarship: either a 3.0 GPA or a 19 ACT score.
“This legislation seeks to level the playing field for high school students who’ve chosen to pursue the technical path curriculum,” Senate sponsor Ben Atchley, R-Knoxville, told the Senate Education Committee before its 8-1 vote.
Committee chairman Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, voted against the measure. The bill now moves on for consideration by the chamber’s finance committee and is pending for consideration in the House Education Committee.
Sen. Steve Cohen, who last year sponsored legislation creating the lottery and the scholarships it funds, argued against the bill, saying its $14 million cost would take money away from after-school and pre-kindergarten programs slated to receive any leftover lottery revenue.
“Do you want to change the law and give these junior college folks — who don’t even make a 19 on the ACT — a scholarship, or give the money to after-school and pre-kindergarten programs?” he asked the committee.
Two representatives of the Knox County school system’s technical-track program say yes. In testimony before the committee, they told members the state has sent “mixed signals” with the institution of differing requirements for the scholarships.
“You’ve created a second-class status for our vocational and technical students,” said Donna Wright, high schools coordinator for Knox County Schools. “All publicly educated Tennessee students need equal access to the scholarships.”
Atchley’s bill is one of several moving through the Legislature this session that would change a lottery law not even a year old.
The Senate Education Committee also unanimously passed on Wednesday a measure that would change the way students and their parents apply for lottery scholarships.
Currently, students must fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which is subsequently processed by the Tennessee Student Assistance Corp. to determine eligibility for a lottery-funded scholarship.
Advocates of the process say it is a way to inform families of additional scholarships and grants their children might qualify for — something they might not have been aware of without filling out the FAFSA application.
But bill sponsor Sen. Jeff Miller, R-Cleveland, says he’s received several complaints from constituents upset they have to reveal their yearly income and net worth on the FAFSA application — even though there is no income requirement for receiving a lottery award.
“They wish it to be on students’ merits and not their net worth,” Miller said.
He said Georgia, the state Tennessee used as a model for its own law, went through the same “growing pains” and eventually moved from requiring the FAFSA application to implementing a one-page application designed specifically for the lottery scholarship.
Miller proposed making the change effective for the next round of scholarship recipients, who will begin applying for scholarships next year.
“It’s simple, it’s to the point, it’s the information that is needed,” he said. “Let’s go through the first year of scholarship applications with the FAFSA form, but by next year TSAC should be able to come up with another form.”
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Read SB2449/HB2861 at Tennessee General Assembly, www.legislature.state.tn.us