Senate OK’s short-term scholarship fix

Saturday, Feb. 12, 2000 | 9:59 a.m.

The measure sent to the House on a 35-1 vote Friday would provide enough money to ensure that scholarships continue paying 100 percent of college tuition through the next school year.

Currently, the scholarship program gets 40 percent of lottery profits each year, while 60 percent is used for public school construction.

The bill changes the split to 50-50.

"Hopefully next year we'll make this 100 percent" for scholarships, said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen.

The popular program is projected to have a $2.7 million shortfall next year, according to the Commission on Higher Education.

If it isn't shored up, the commission by law would have to reduce the scholarships to about 70 percent of tuition.

Lawmakers said that would break the promise the Legislature made to all New Mexico families when it created the program four years ago.

Sen. Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said the program is "a gold mine for people in the middle class."

It helps families that aren't so poor that their children qualify for other scholarships but aren't rich enough to pay for college, he said.

Sen. Don Kidd, R-Carlsbad, said he met Friday with 15 students from Carlsbad High School who were visiting the Capitol.

"The first thing they asked was, 'What about the lottery scholarship?"' Kidd said.

Sen. Leonard Lee Rawson, R-Las Cruces, said the program ran into a shortfall sooner than anticipated because colleges raised tuition, lowered enrollment standards and provided "bridge" loans for a semester until students could qualify for the scholarships.

"It really made it look like the Legislature underfunded the program," Rawson objected.

More than 8,000 students are getting the scholarships. They are required to keep a 2.5 grade point average in order to remain qualified.

Some senators objected that the Commission on Higher Education hasn't done a good enough job tracking lottery scholarship students to accurately predict how much money will be needed in the long run.

"I don't believe the figures you're getting," said Sen. Raymond Kysar, R-Farmington.

CHE cannot provide specific information about how many students with lottery scholarships have maintained their eligibility and how many have been disqualified, said Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell.

"We just don't have the information to know whether this is enough, whether this is too little," said Adair, who cast the only dissenting vote.