State scholarship won’t cover remedial classes

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005 | 9:52 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Students who gain Millennium Scholarships for college in Nevada will not get the state money for remedial courses starting this school year, the state attorney general's office said Monday.

Senior Deputy Attorney General Victoria Thimmesch Oldenburg said it was clear in the law approved by the 2005 Legislature that a student is prohibited from using Millennium Scholarship funds to pay for remedial courses.

Remedial classes are described as any math or English course with course numbers less than 100.

The legal opinion was addressed to state Treasurer Brian Krolicki, who posed questions about operation of the new law.

To qualify for a Millennium Scholarship, a student must take and maintain six credits at a community college or 12 credits at a university in Nevada.

The scholarship pays $80 per credit at UNLV and UNR; $60 per credit hour at Nevada State College at Henderson and 40 per credit for each lower division course and $60 per credit for each upper vision course at community colleges.

In the opinion, Oldenburg said remedial courses could be used to fulfill the requirement of 12 credits at the universities and six at the community colleges.

"For example, if an eligible student enrolls at a Nevada university or state college for 12 semester credits, three of which are remedial, the student is still entitled to the Millennium Scholarship funds to pay for nine qualified semester credits," she said.

But she said if the student drops a course, whether remedial or nonremedial, the student is no longer eligible to receive the scholarship that semester.