The Arkansas Division of Higher Education is pushing for a bill to reestablish a need-based scholarship program from the Arkansas Lottery.
The regular Legislative session doesn't begin until January, but division officials are looking for lawmakers who will support and introduce several bills, Executive Director Maria Markham told the state Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday.
One of those bills is the reintroduction of a need-based scholarship, to be funded by excess Arkansas Lottery dollars.
In 2017, Arkansas lawmakers got rid of two need-based scholarship programs, which Markham called "unsuccessful."
The new approach is streamlined, she wrote in her proposal, and the current supply of Arkansas Lottery scholarship money exceeds the demand for it. The lottery funds most of the Academic Challenge Scholarship as well as scholarships for workforce education and high school students concurrently enrolled in college.
The proposed need-based scholarships, which would be called Challenge Plus, would provide additional aid. It would be for students already receiving scholarships, and a sliding scale would determine necessary funds.
Without the previous two need-based scholarships, Markham wrote in a working document proposal to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas was one of "very few" states without a need-based scholarship program.
But "financial need remains one of the primary barriers to higher education, particularly among low-income students," Markham wrote.