Senate panel OK’s scholarship fix

Deborah Baker

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2000 | 2:21 a.m.

SANTA FE - A Senate committee on Thursday endorsed a short-term fix for the lottery scholarship funding dilemma.

The legislation increases from 40 percent to 50 percent the share of lottery profits that is used to pay college tuitions.

The rest of the money would continue to go to school construction.

Changing the current 40-60 split of lottery profits to 50-50 would provide nearly enough money to keep tuition scholarships at 100 percent through the next school year.

"This is something we promised every single person who graduated from high school - and their parents," Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, the bill's sponsor, told the Senate Education Committee.

Without the extra infusion of money, the program is projected to have a $2.7 million shortfall next year. That, by law, would require the Commission on Higher Education to reduce scholarships to about 70 percent of tuition.

The 50-50 solution would provide about another $2 million next year; the Legislature would have to come up with the rest to keep the scholarships at 100 percent.

The quick fix would give the Legislature an opportunity to revamp the funding for the scholarship program in its 60-day session next year.

Sanchez said he will promote earmarking all of the lottery profits to college tuitions.

But solving the scholarship funding problem is linked to a broader task facing lawmakers: revamping the way the state pays for school construction.

The Legislature could not divert all the lottery proceeds to scholarships until it found another way to pay for building schools.

The education committee shelved another suggested approach to solving the scholarship problem: limiting the size of scholarships, and making them available only to students with family incomes of $70,000 or less.

The committee also endorsed a second measure, sponsored by Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, that prohibits colleges, universities and vocational and technical schools from increasing the tuitions of students who get lottery scholarships, as long as they continue to be eligible for the scholarships.

Both bills must clear the Senate Finance Committee before they would reach the full Senate for a vote.