Arkansas: Higher Education Reports: The Lottery effect

Editor’s note: This the first of two stories about the Arkansas Lottery Scholarship and its relationship to college tuition. Also, this is part of a series on various funding aspects of Arkansas’ higher education system. Stories in the series, expected to run through September, are expected to include a look at the Arkansas Lottery Scholarship and guest commentary from Donald Bobbitt, president of the University of Arkansas System. Shane Broadway, director of the  Arkansas Department of Higher Education,  Little Rock early on July 17 to promote the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship, the program funded mostly by the state lottery.

Speaking in Hot Springs to a meeting of the state’s alternative classroom teachers, Broadway encouraged them to talk up the program with their students.

“We want to make sure alternative students know they should apply,” Broadway said.

Those students, along with all other incoming Arkansas high school seniors, will be part of the fourth college freshman class to benefit from what’s widely known as lottery scholarships, worth $5,000 annually for the 2010-2011 freshman class and $4,500 for the 2011-2012 freshmen. The amount varies based on the contribution each year from the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.

The  Arkansas Scholarship Lotteryposted record earnings of $474,076,726 for its 2012 fiscal year ended June 30 — $10 million more than last year’s earnings. The earnings resulted in net proceeds of almost $97.6 million for scholarships. Last year, proceeds were $94.2 million.

SCHOLARSHIP BOOST
Julie Baldridge, communications director for the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, said the lottery has funded more than 64,000 scholarships since fall 2010 – the first year for the scholarships. That doesn’t include new students who will begin classes this fall.

Many believe the Academic Challenge scholarships have led to the steady 2.1% overall  increase in the state’s two- and four-year institutions and marked growth at some schools, including the University of Arkansas where the undergraduate population has soared. The Fayetteville campus saw an increase of 475 students from fall 2007 to fall 2008 and 414 more students in 2009 – the two years before the lottery scholarships were first awarded – to increases of 1,394 students in 2010 and an additional 1,806 students in fall 2011.

“You can look at the growth of the UA system institutions and see it’s had an impact,” said Dr. Donald R. Bobbitt, president of the University of Arkansas System. He said almost 25,000 students are expected on the Fayetteville campus for the fall 2012 semester.

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