Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Question Raised Over Scholarship

A member of the Arkansas Senate has officially requested an attorney general's opinion on the constitutionality of a public-funded scholarship program that some students use to pay for tuition at private colleges.

The legality of the scholarship program was called into question at a recent meeting of the Higher Education Council. Chancellors of two state-supported universities publicly questioned the legality of the Governor's Distinguished Scholarship program. They noted that students can qualify for the scholarships whether they attend a public college or a private college, even one with a religious affiliation.

The tuition and expenses for a private college in Arkansas can be as much as $17,000 a year. the most expensive state-supported college is the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. For eligible students attending the Fayetteville campus the scholarships are worth about $9,000 a year, the approximate cost of tuition there.

The chancellors said the scholarship program in effect was a state government subsidy of private institutions. Furthermore, the state subsidizes the private colleges at a higher rate than does the public institutions, they said.

To qualify for a Governor's Distinguished Scholarship, a student must score 32 or higher on the American College Test (ACT), a common standardized test on which the highest possible score is 36, or a score of 1410 on the SAT college entrance exam. The highest possible score on the SAT is 1600.

This year 226 students in Arkansas qualified for the scholarships.

The governor expressed concern that a college chancellor would publicly question the legality of a scholarship program, thus encouraging a lawsuit that could have the program struck by a court.

The program pays the entire cost of attending college, which is more than merely the tuition. Eligible students may choose any college in Arkansas, whether public or private.

The director of the state Higher Education Department said that the state would spend about $6 million on the scholarship program this year, and that $2.7 million of that amount would benefit students attending private colleges.

The department provided figures showing that 89 students at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville received the scholarships. Hendrix College students received 69. Harding University students received 12. At the University of Arkansas in Conway, 10 students received the scholarships.

Eight scholarships went to students at Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, seven to Lyon College in Batesville, seven to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, four to John Brown University at Siloam Springs, three to Arkansas Tech University at Russellville, two to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and one each to the University of the Ozarks at Clarksville and Phillips Community College at Helena.

The goal of the scholarship program is to encourage the state's brightest students to attend college in Arkansas and thus live and work in Arkansas after graduation.

The request for an attorney general's opinion asks whether the state and federal Constitutions permit the payment of state funds for financial aid to students who attend private colleges, and do the payments violate the constitutional provisions separating church and state if the student attends a college with a religious affiliation.