NASHVILLE — A new state lottery report that shows record sales undercuts arguments for the need of a bill seeking to slash by half lottery-funded scholarships for some students, state Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, said today.
“One of the most important economic drivers we have right now is getting more people through college,” Berke said. “It is short-sighted and a mistake to cut lottery scholarships at a time when revenues are increasing and we have no idea whether there’s going to be any future problem.”
Earlier, Tennessee Lottery President Rebecca Hargrove told the Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee that net lottery proceeds for the Hope Scholarship program were $10 million above projections for the first seven months of the fiscal year.
Lottery officials said the lottery has set record gross sales each month since July. Education proceeds have increased 4 percent since 2005.
Majority Republicans are pushing a bill that would cut lottery scholarship awards for students who don’t achieve both a 21 on their ACT and a 3.0 high school grade point average. Currently, they only need one or the other.
The bill’s sponsor, Senate Education Committee Chairman Delores Gresham, R-Somerville, said the growth isn’t enough to deter her from moving ahead with the measure. Scholarship demands still exceed revenues, she argued.
“We are very fortunate that we have enough reserves right now to carry us a few years, but you cannot keep spending more than you’re taking in,” Gresham told reporters after Hargrove’s presentation.
Read more in tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
Andy Sher is a Nashville-based staff writer covering Tennessee state government and politics for the Times Free Press. A Washington correspondent from 1999-2005 for the Times Free Press, Andy previously headed up state Capitol coverage for The Chattanooga Times, worked as a state Capitol reporter for The Nashville Banner and was a contributor to The Tennessee Journal, among other publications. Andy worked for 17 years at The Chattanooga Times covering police, health care, county government, ...
A controversial bill that could slash lottery-funded scholarships in half for some 5,000 students beginning in 2015 is dead for ...
NASHVILLE -- The Senate approved legislation Monday that could slash lottery scholarships in half for several thousand college students in ...
Top House and Senate Democrats today called on Republican Gov. Bill Haslam to block GOP legislative efforts they say would ...
NASHVILLE — New figures showing record sales for the Tennessee Lottery undercut Republican arguments that the program needs tougher standards ...
