Rob Moritz has an interesting article for Stephens Media today about some of the key points in crafting legislation to implement the state lottery and scholarship program.
When Sen. Terry Smith starts talking about a private group to run this enterprise be afraid — be very afraid. A relatively independent public agency seems the preference on the House side, likely a better alternative. Whatever the mechanism, absolute and total transparency about every single aspect of the operation, including (note to UCA) recipients of scholarship awards, is a MUST.
I remain nervous, too, that the eligibility requirements and retention requirements (a college 3.0 GPA) will produce a scholarship that doesn’t attract the people who need it most. If only those deemed “deserving” qualify, we’ll have a system overwhelmly rewarding those in the most advantaged circumstances. That’s the simple math of the issue.
If Arkansas does set a high requirement, I think we should require legislators to disclose their college GPAs and their ACT scores. Those without a 3.0 and 18 ACT should be dismissed. They are simply not deserving.