Lottery Scholarships To Shrink

Lottery scholarships in Arkansas are going to get smaller.

Lawmakers are hashing out details and a firm amount isn’t set yet, but due to more students and  the $5,000 offered to students at four-year colleges is likely to shrink. Qualified students outpaced lottery revenue expectations in the first year, which has led to the discussion of lowering the scholarship amounts.

David Goins with our content partner, Fox 16 News, reports:

An oversight committee hashed out details Wednesday on just how much each student will receive. While the exact amount of the lottery scholarship is not yet known, make no mistake, there will be less money for your child’s college tuition in the fall.

The best guess now is a $500 cut for four year schools It would allow more students to get scholarships, qualified applicants outstripped the amount of money available in year one.

"We’ve got to get it done, the law says we have to do it." says Rep. Mark Perry (D-Jacksonville), who chairs the Lottery Oversight Committee. “If we do nothing it stays at $5000. We’ve looked at the numbers, it’s got to come down some."

You can access Goins’ full report including video at this link.