Joint Lottery Meeting Part II: Scholarships

We are still tentatively scheduled to convene House Rules and Senate State Agencies jointly upon adjournment today to roll out the second component of proposed legislation to implement the Scholarship Lottery Amendment approved by voters on November 4. We've reserved the Old Supreme Courtroom on the Capitol's second floor again for the meeting. This has garnered much of Robbie's attention over the last week, and has been virtually the only late night topic of discussion among the group that convenes at that hour.

Robbie lays out a scholarsip summary over at his blog, which takes into account many items not conspicuous to those outside of the process, like how to take care of the 35,000 students already enrolled on Arkansas campuses (campi?) with a 2.5. Leaving them completely to fend for themselves with current scholarship opportunities merely because of their date of birth could be a potential PR nightmare for the legislature. On the other hand, we're starting with zilch but for the reserve fund. Thanks to Speaker Wills and Senators Smith, Salmon, Broadway, Johnson and Reps. Roebuck, M Burris, Abernathy, and several other staff members, we're about to distribute legislation that takes care of all of these issues.

The proposed funding mechanism that determines the amount of the scholarships -- akin to the Revenue Stabilization Act -- is sound, and we've reserved an amount of funds for non-traditional students. ADHE has prepared a table to show the value/amount of the new Academic Challenge Scholarship based on the amount of revenue generated from the lottery. Setting it up through the existing scholarship with modifications allows the value of the scholarship to reach much higher levels. All of these issues will be discussed if today's meeting takes place.

Here's an iPhone picture of Robbie giving the Farm Bureau an update on the scholarship component of the lottery at their annual legislative reception last night on University Avenue in Little Rock: