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House Lottery Bill Passes Finance Group May 14, 2003

NASHVILLE - A House subcommittee that held lottery scholarship legislation for two weeks approved the bill Monday after Rep. Harry Tindell backed off his push for a major overhaul.

The Knoxville Democrat said new estimates on the cost of his plan raised the possibility that enactment would "over promise" scholarships with revenues from lottery ticket sales uncertain.

With the withdrawal of Tindell's amendment, the Budget Subcommittee gave prompt approval to the bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Newton, R-Benton. That sends it to the full House Finance Committee today and "hopefully" for a vote on the House floor by the end of this week, Newton said.

The Senate has already approved a lottery scholarship bill, but in substantially different form than the emerging House plan as it now stands.

At Newton's urging, the Budget Subcommittee added another difference on Monday - requiring a higher ACT score for students who do not graduate from a certified high school. The new House version would require home-schooled students or those with a GED certificate to have a score of 23 on the ACT. The Senate version sets the standard at 19 on the ACT.

But Tindell's proposal would have made differences between the House and Senate plans even more dramatic and his retreat enhances the prospects of a compromise eventually being hammered out by a House-Senate conference committee. The conference committee likely will not meet until next week, after the House has given final floor approval to its scholarship bill.

Under the Tindell plan, students from families with income of less than $36,000 and those deemed most qualified for college by holding a 3.75 GPA in high school and scoring 29 on the ACT would have would have up-front scholarships upon entering college.

All others would go their first semester without a scholarship, but would have qualified for one in the second semester if they had a 3.0 college GPA and for subsequent semesters if they maintained that average.

The idea was to open up scholarships to more students doing well in college and eliminate the effect of great disparity in high school grading scales, Tindell said. The Newton bill requires a 3.0 GPA in high school for eligibility and critics say that is unfair because school districts vary widely in grading scales.

According to the estimates provided Monday to the Budget Subcommittee of the House Finance Committee, Tindell's proposal would have spent $128.6 million on scholarships to 98,553 students in the first year of operation compared to 46,660 at a $115 million cost under the basic Newton plan.

In the fourth year, the Tindell total would have reached 148,184 students and spent $250 million compared to 68,267 students costing $185 million under the Newton plan.

Tindell's plan would have applied to all grade levels in college, including seniors, who had a 3.0 GOP starting as they began their second semester of the 2004 class year.

Newton's plan applies to freshmen who graduate high school, home school or aquire a GED after Jan. 1, 2004. There is also a provision allowing 2003 high school or equivalency graduates to qualify for a scholarship in their sophomore year, or the fall semester of 2004 if they have a 3.0 GPA at that time. Others would be ineligible.

Tindell told the committee that, in view of the new cost estimates, he had decided to withdraw his proposal - though he will push it again in the future if lottery revenues justify the extra spending once the program has been in place.

"I will work with you in the future to try and make that a reality," Newton told him in the committee meeting. The House scholarship bill provides a basic $3,000 for qualifying students at four-year institutions. The Senate version provides $4,000.

Both versions provide $1,500 to students learning a skill at technical schools, but conflict on many other points. The House version, for example, makes an exception to the general 3.0 high school GPA requirement by reducing that to 2.75 in the case of students from families with an income of less than $36,000. Such students would get half the normal grant, or $1,500 instead of $3,000, and could later qualify for full grants if they reach and maintain a 3.0 in college.

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