Lotto Scholarships Could Be Reduced

Lottery revenues haven't been able to cover the entire cost of the scholarships for 97,000 students in Tennessee. Some of the options lawmakers are considering include slashing the scholarship amount, eliminating programs or adding an income cap.

"It's very important. It's helped me pay for all my school," said Kalina Neely, a student at Middle Tennessee State University.

Right now, lawmakers are using reserves to cover the costs of student scholarships, but they don't want to. So higher education officials laid out all of the possible options, and some options are already causing concern.

"Down the line, we need to make sure we have the funds for future generations," said Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga.

State lawmakers met Monday with a list of possibilities.

"This is literally a first look at it," said Sen. Jamie Woodson, R-Knoxville. "There have been no decisions made."

The possibilities include lowering the scholarship amount from $4,000 to $3,000 for freshmen and sophomores at four-year institutions.

Other options include raising ACT test requirements to a score of 22 or 23, increasing high school GPA requirements, capping the scholarship at 120 credit hours or awarding scholarships only to those whose household income is less than $100,000.

There's also the possibility of eliminating smaller scholarship programs for veterans, foster children or non-traditional students.

But school leaders said anything to reduce the amount of the scholarship will cause in-state students to look beyond Tennessee's borders.

"There will be a certain number I'm convinced that will begin to look around and go outside of the state. The incentive to stay will be reduced," said Jan Simek, interim president of the University of Tennessee.

Right now, these are only options and there's no guarantee lawmakers will choose any or all of them.

The shortfall is less than originally thought, so lawmakers have reserves in case they want to gradually implement tougher standards, which is what some are suggesting.