Lottery Scholarship Details Released

Lawmakers revealed more details of the scholarship lottery on Wednesday. The plan entails revamping the Academic Challenge Scholarship.

The plan combines the 20-million dollars for the Academic Challenge Scholarship and adds to it proceeds from the lottery.
 

Eligibility will also change. High school grads with a 2.5 GPA, regardless of household income, would qualify. If you don't have that GPA, students who score a 19 or above on the ACT would also qualify.

The plan is expected to increase the number of students receiving scholarships from 8,000 to 35,000. This bill also has a plan tied to it that estimates how the amount of scholarship money would grow as lottery proceeds grow over the years.

"The first lottery scholarship will be awarded in the Fall of 2010,” said House Speaker Robbie Wills. “What we have to do is get this lottery up and running as quickly as we can and everyday that goes by that we don't have a lottery is less money for the Fall of 2010."

"The thing that we did say several months ago that they seem to be following is to roll the proceeds from the Academic Challenge Scholarship, in other words to roll the amount that had previously been budgeted from the Academic Challenge Scholarship into a new scholarship,” said Lt. Governor Bill Halter.

It is still unclear how much money will be awarded to scholarship recipients. Mr. Halter has wanted $5,000  per student. Right now lawmakers are not tied to a specific amount. They hope to set that amount next year.