State legislators debate HOPE Scholarship changes

Tennessee state legislators will spend the next few months debating whether or not to increase requirements or reduce rewards for the Tennessee Lottery HOPE Scholarship.

The potential changes stem from a recommendation by a bipartisan Lottery Stabilization Task Force, who recommended the lottery cut funding in half to maintain enough money in reserve for future students, Kerri Kocincki, scholarship coordinator for the office of financial aid, said.

"At this point, the Tennessee Lottery Scholarship Program remains popular, successful and healthy," Dr. Richard Brown, chief financial officer and senior vice chancellor for finance, operations and information technology, said. "Legislators are being prudent now by looking at the program and planning for its continued success. While the state has a surplus of lottery funds today, projections show that will not always be the case."

Chuck Cantrell, associate vice chancellor of communication and marketing, said the changes being considered fall under two catagories, either increasing the requirements for the scholarship or reducing the rewards the scholarship provides.

"The proposed option is to require incoming students to meet both the ACT and GPA requiremens coming out of high school," Kocincki said. "Students who meet one of the criterion would be able to receive half of the award for two years, then may become eligible for the full award."

Kocincki said the decision as to whether or not this option will be chosen could be made within a few months.

However, she said, the decisions would not likely go into effect for a few years to allow current high school students time to meet any new requirements or plan for any changes in expected scholarship assistance.

Kocincki said her advice is always to put forth the best effort possible because the nature of scholarships is very competitive. 

She said students concerned about receiving updated scholarship information should check their email and MyMocsNet account for any potential updates. 

"The HOPE Scholarship Program is an investment in Tennessee's citizens and our state's future, and our legislators realize this," Brown said. "The current discussions are aimed at ensuring that the scholarship will remain available for future generations of Tennessee students."