By Angie Herrington

Staff Writer

Area Tennessee lawmakers differ on whether the criteria to receive state lottery scholarships should be changed to provide more to financially needy students.

Gov. Phil Bredesen at the state's higher education budget hearing in November expressed support for altering the program to include a financial need-based qualification rather than only academic merit.

Freshmen are eligible for the scholarship if they have a 3.0 high school grade-point average or make a 21 on the ACT college entrance exam.

Rep. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said the lottery scholarship was sold to Tennesseans as a merit scholarship that would keep the brightest students from going out of state to attend college.

"It was not sold as a need-based scholarship," he said. "Right now I would be very much against making this another entitlement program or a need-based scholarship."

Rep. Bell's comments came during a meeting last week at the Chattanooga Times Free Press with area lawmakers and reporters and editors.

Rep. Tommie Brown, D-Chattanooga, said she will fight during this legislative session, which begins in January, to have the lottery scholarship program changed so it can help more students pay for college.

About half of freshmen lose their scholarships after one year, and two-thirds of recipients lose them after two years, according to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

"These are not tax dollars. These are the dollars that men and women, who were not merit scholars, (spend when they) go to the lottery places and buy tickets," Rep. Brown said. "And we need to make those dollars accessible."

Gov. Phil Bredesen at the November budget hearing called the lottery scholarship an "elitist" program that primarily benefited students who would have been able to afford college without it.

He said this was not a firm proposal, but he could envision a two-tiered approach in which scholarships would be given to students who have an exceptionally high grade-point average, such as a 3.5 or above, but students with a 2.5 GPA could receive awards based on financial need.

Area lawmakers agreed lottery scholarships would be a major item for the Tennessee General Assembly when it convenes Jan. 8.

Dozens of pieces of legislation dealing with changes to the scholarship program were wrapped up in a comprehensive bill this past session that ultimately died.

One of the ideas in that bill was to lower the grade-point average a student needs to retain a lottery scholarship for all four years to a 2.75. Students during their freshman year now must maintain a 2.75 GPA and a 3.0 GPA for subsequent years to keep a lottery scholarship.

Rep. JoAnne Favors, D-Chattanooga, said that given the varying academic standards at high schools across the state, it is unrealistic for some college students to achieve a 3.0 GPA.

That may change as some high schools improve their curriculums by way of programs already in place, but right now things are not uniform, she said.

"Until we get to that point, I think we should go ahead and make the (lottery scholarship GPA) level more realistic," she said.

Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said he believes the 3.0 GPA is a "fair measure" and supports the idea of a merit-based scholarship.

"I think if we get too far away from the merit aspect of it ... some of the our best and brightest will move to other states rather than remain here," he said.

Sen. Dewayne Bunch, R-Cleveland, said changing the lottery scholarship to a more need-based program may go against the constitutional amendment that allowed for the lottery's creation.

"I don't think we can do that based on the amendment that was passed," he said.

E-mail Angie Herrington at aherrington@timesfreepress.com