Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Huckabee Unveils Plans For State's Educational System (cont)

ive plan to keep the students in the state. This plan is the Academic Challenge Scholarship Program.

The concept of this program, he said, is to base it on the merit of the student and not family income.

Currently, the cutoff for this scholarship is $35,000, so students meeting all other criteria, but whose family income exceeds this amount, is ineligible.

To qualify for the ACS now, a student must have a 2.5 grade point average, score 19 on the ACT test, complete the core curriculum recommended by the Higher Education Coordinating Board, including two years of foreign language, and sign an affidavit stating they are drug free.

Huckabee proposes raising the income level to $70,000 for a family of four, while keeping all other criteria in place.

By doing this, more students should, he said, stay in Arkansas for college, and then choose to remain in the state to work and live.

With the expansion of technology, the need for technical workers is increasing rapidly. Industry now needs employees who can handle computerized equipment and not just work well with their hands, but be able to use their heads as well.

One of the ways, Huckabee said, to meet the need for these kinds of workers is to provide financial aid to those seeking education and training in technical fields.

Huckabee proposes a Technical Careers Student Loan Program to help in this area. The general parameters of the program would state those getting the loans must enroll in programs leading to careers in technical occupations.

The target population would consist of adult workers who are returning for post- secondary education in these technical fields and others who didn't qualify for the Arkansas Challenge Scholarship.

Those getting the loans could have them forgiven by working in Arkansas in a technical field. For each year the person works in the field, a year of their loan will be forgiven.