Utah's fledgling program to give $1,000 scholarship to college-bound high school graduates is expected to survive the legislative session with sufficient funding, but the cost will be indirectly borne by the state's college students rather than taxpayers under a pending budget proposal.
Lawmakers plan to raid a $1.9 million appropriation for a needs-based grant program to pay for the Regents Scholarship Program, which promises $1,000 to students who complete a tough high school curriculm with a B average and are headed to college in Utah.
They then would increase tuition 0.5 percent to replace the appropriation lost by the Utah Centennial Opportunity Program for Education (UCOPE), which offers one of the few grants available to Utah college students on a needs basis.
The tuition increase, which would pile on top of other increases the Board of Regents will authorize later this month, would translate to a $25 bill for in-state students attending the University of Utah, less at the other schools.
Utah Higher Education Commissioner William Sederburg opted to use the tuition hike to fund UCOPE rather than the scholarship program because UCOPE funds are managed by individual schools, and he wants extra tuition students pay to remain at the schools they attend, said Dave Buhler, associate commissioner.
The Regents Scholarship Program, in contrast to UCOPE, is administered as a statewide program.
This year 1,100 students applied for the Regents Scholarship, but it is not yet known how many will actually qualify. When the program launched last year, more than 700 applied, but only 182 qualified. Now that the scholarships requirements are better understood by the public and high school officials, many more applicants are expected to qualify this year, USHE spokesman Spencer Jenkins said.
Officials are not daunted by the current low rates of participation because the program is designed to encourage those just entering high school to prepare for college. Officials hope up to 7,000 students a year eventually will qualify, which would cost at least $7 million.
The Scholarship not only awards up to $1,000 for all qualifying graduates, but provides incentives to high school students to deposit money in college savings accounts and provides exemplary scholarships worth up to 75 percent of tuition to those students whose GPA's exceed 3.5 and ACT scores are at least 26.
