The lottery working group today unveiled a draft of its ideas on lottery scholarships. House Speaker Wills had already indicated a central scholarship program built on the existing Challenge scholarship. A 2.5 or 19 ACT qualification (test score is not necessary; grades are a better indicator of past and future performance).
The draft apparently includes a factor that would penalize school districts with “grade inflation” — a high college remediation rate against average gradepoints. This, however, would not be a school penalty, but a student penalty. It would complicate something that should be simple.
Unresolved question: Will the legislature go forward with the amendment to put the lottery within more conventional legislative appropriation procedures? Under the new amendment, it enjoys an independent status. The Father of the Arkansas Lottery, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, hopes not. He’s been winning on the broad outlines of the lottery so far. On this issue, who knows? Ernest Dumas, who’s been covering the legislature for 40 years or so, thinks the process should be changed.
UPDATE: Halter comments on details released this afternoon. Robbie Wills posted this before the meeting, now underway.
For now, income limits will remain in place for state scholarship qualification. But once the lottery is functional, the draft bill provides there will be no income limits on qualifying for scholarships. It doesn’t set a specific scholarship amount, but provides for a sliding scale based on coming revenue. That is, $2,500 to $5,500 per year for a four-year school (about half that for a two-year school) depending on revenue.