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LT. GOVERNOR PROMOTES LOTTERY SCHOLARSHIP IN PB AREA SCHOOLS

By Amy Widner/Of The Commercial Staff
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 10:40 AM CST

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter was interrupted by cheers Monday as he told Pine Bluff High School seniors their class would be among the first to benefit from the state’s lottery scholarships.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter outlines and answers student questions about the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Monday at Pine Bluff High School. According to him, too many graduating seniors and their families still don’t know about the scholarships, which they can start applying for in January. Halter also visited White Hall High School and Watson Chapel High School. Special to The Commercial/Rusty Reid

“Now how many of you think you can score a 2.5 grade point average? How many of you think you can score a 19 on the ACT? Now everybody that’s raising your hands, we’re counting on you,” Halter said, explaining that Arkansas ranks 49th nationwide in the percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees.

“We’re counting on you to change that,” he said. “But you get something out of it too. Because throughout your lifetime, college graduates earn more than $1 million more than the typical high-school graduate.”

Halter visited three area schools Monday: Watson Chapel High School, Pine Bluff High School and White Hall High School. He said he also would have visited Dollarway High School, but they were holding a flu shot clinic.

“We want to get this information out to students and families because what we’re discovering is that folks still don’t know about this and we want to make people aware of just how straightforward a lot of this is,” Halter said in an interview after his speech.

Halter told students they can start applying for the scholarships in January through the Arkansas Department of Higher Education Web site, www.adhe.edu, and will find out within a few weeks of applying if they have won a scholarship.

Halter expects 10,000 scholarships will be given out in the first year. Within four years, he said about 30,000 Arkansas students will have a scholarship at any given time.

Halter said if the lottery brings in $100 million a year as projected, $5,000 scholarships will be available for students attending four-year schools and $2,500 for students attending two-year schools.

To qualify, students must graduate with a 2.5 grade point average or a 19 on the ACT. The scholarships are only valid in Arkansas but can be used at both public and private colleges. They may be added to other scholarships, grants and loans. To keep the scholarship, students must maintain a 2.5 grade point average in college.

If their grade point average drops, they may regain the scholarship by raising their grade point average to 2.5. Students can only regain the scholarship once, however.

Halter was introduced by Pine Bluff High School student body President Carlton Brewer, a senior, who said the lottery scholarships will help Arkansas students “live the American Dream.”

Halter used the bulk of his time at Pine Bluff High to answer student questions. Students were interested in everything — from details like if there is an income cap for eligibility (to which the answer was ‘no’) — to bigger issues. One student asked why the lottery was the chosen method to raise scholarship money.

“We looked high and low and couldn’t find a source of $100 million a year that people wanted to do,” Halter said. “People are not interested in tax increases and the lottery is completely voluntary. Nobody’s going to force you to buy a ticket.”

Halter said he is confident in his projection that the lottery will bring in $100 million a year, the amount required to provide the $5,000 four-year and $2,500 two-year scholarships.

If the lottery fails to raise $100 million a year, the scholarships would be lower. Halter said that if the lottery brings in more than $100 million, raising the scholarships will be up to the Arkansas Legislature.

“But I will tell you, right now the lottery is actually over achieving, more than our projections and of course, Powerball was launched on Saturday night and will be even more popular,” Halter said.

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