Posted on 05/29/2008 6:58:22 AM PDT by Arkansas Toothpick
LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Arkansas college administrators are already looking to a proposed state lottery to help solve an expected $1 billion shortfall in financial aid to students over the next three decades, even before the issue makes it onto the November ballot, e-mail exchanges obtained by The Associated Press show.
Jim Purcell, director of the state Department of Higher Education, acknowledged in an e-mail to the governor's office that funding for college programs remains locked in a "death spiral to the bottom." Purcell urged the governor to defer all new scholarship ideas unless voters support the lottery measure backed by Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, which is expected to bring in as much as $100 million a year.
While officials haven't factored the lottery's passage into budgeting, Purcell said lottery dollars would be essential in launching a new scholarship program intended to draw more Arkansans back into the classroom.
"Those kinds of initiatives certainly would be limited if we didn't have those state resources," Purcell told the AP. "If there was additional funds for the scholarships, certainly we would be able to do some of the things we think could maximize our ability to provide the state the educated workers they need."
A chart made by the Department of Higher Education predicts the state would enter a deficit in funding its financial aid programs by 2018, if budgets don't change. A $4 million deficit in 2018 would become a $1 billion deficit by 2039, when the department predicts the state will spend $141 million on its financial aid.
Purcell said the predictions come from an anticipated growing demand to enter two- and four-year colleges and universities around the state, as well as rising costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox16.com ...
Y’all can thank The Beast and Slick Willie for this. I can hardly wait for her to get her claws into education all across our nation. Not!
So, IOW, the state forecasts a shortfall of $1B in money they want to give away.........
Yes, I believe that... /sarcasm
We have a lottery in California that was supposed to benefit education, but they keep coming back to us every election cycle asking for more and more money. And so far, haven’t seen any results.
“I used to be against state-run lotteries but now more and more I see them as a “tax for the willing”. I DO hate the idea of someone’s grocery money being used in a desperate bid to get out of poverty so I’m still not 100% sold on the idea.”
Agree. But,on the otherhand, I have friends and relatives back in Arkansaw and whenever the lottery pot in Texas becomes large, they designated someone to “make a run” to the Texas side of Texarkana to buy a bunch of lottery tickets. Apparently a lot of folks do this. So, guess my two bits is Arkansas might as well get this money as Texas...
AK could stop allocating money for colleges. The kids who want to go should pay for their education. If colleges had to compete for the available students, their tuitions would go down.
It has already been decided for every $ the lottery brings in (IF it's successful in passing), that dollar will be withheld from the general fund for a net increase of zero for the education fund.
ARkansas' designation is AR, AlasKa's is AK.
....and then, in a couple of years, the pols will sell it to provide for another cash infusion. Besides, with the bureaucracy that will build from this, it will be losing money by that time.
Thanks for setting me straight. That’s what happens when you try to save a couple of keystrokes.
Isn’t this the same state that was proposing in state tuition for illegal aliens a year or two ago?
I have nothing against government run lotteries, though I do disagree on the taxing of winnings- that said, Ohio is currently running a heavy “Gamble for Education” advertising campaign while vigorously opposing casinos. I find the whole hypocrisy pretty damn distasteful.
It has already been decided for every $ the lottery brings in (IF it’s successful in passing), that dollar will be withheld from the general fund for a net increase of zero for the education fund.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Money is fungible.
Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
Yep, thought that is no longer going to be the case.
Caused by three decades of the Clinton-Huckleby Legacy?
Murphy Oil Co.: College Scholarship Program ‘Unprecedented’
Oil refiner pledges to pay college tuition for nearly all high school graduates in Arkansas town.
Feb. 1, 2007 — The oil industry may have softened its public image with the Murphy Oil Co.’s $50 million commitment to provide college scholarships for students in its hometown of El Dorado, Ark.
The scholarship program, called the El Dorado Promise, provides over the next 20 years a full scholarship for El Dorado High School graduates who attend the district for all 13 years and up to 65% paid tuition for students who attend grades nine through 12.
Murphy Oil President and CEO Claiborne Deming indicated that the program could provide an economic development boost for El Dorado.
Some fear the lottery would prey on the poor, encourage the state to gamble, and that those who win the scholarships won’t even finish college.
Smith says, “I’ve done some research concerning the affects of the lottery not only in the moral fiber of Christianity and the community but the dollar and sense factors. Seventy percent of those people who receive those funds will not complete the four year scenario.”
Other states are having issues with their lotteries. In Tennessee, they’re ending up with too much scholarship money than they have applicants. So the state Legislature is considering making it easier to qualify, but some fear what that would do to the value of a college degree in that state.
In Georgia, some are upset that the scholarship money only lets students attend in-state schools.
Others argue the money is only going to students who would have gone to college anyway.
Alan Hughes and the state’s American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) are backing Halter and his lottery measure that would create scholarships for high school students and adults. What matters most to Hughes is putting displaced manufacturing workers in two-year colleges.
Arkansas Governor Still UnSure About Lottery
“I’ve indicated I’d love to have the money for higher education for scholarships for higher education, but I worry the effect the lottery would have on some people. I’ve got mixed feelings as we stand now,” says Beebe.
Proceeds from the lottery would go toward college scholarships, although lottery operators will collect a hefty fee for their services.
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