Unofficial Voice of the Utah Senate Majority
Welcome to The Senate Site
Friday, July 18, 2008Regency Scholarships
By Lyle Hillyard
Utah State Senator, District 25 Last session, I sponsored a bill in cooperation with the State Board of Regents to create a $1000 scholarship for high school graduates who complete a rigorous course of study for their 4 years in high school and have a good citizenship component to their school attendance. We decided to make it available to those who comply with the requirements with this graduating class mainly to see how it would work and to create some interest in the program. We have been very pleased to see the interest and the number who qualify. It will take all of the $900,000 that was allocated to the program this year. We will need more money to continue the funding, although the bill was written so that the Board of Regents can reduce the amount of the scholarships if those who qualify exceed the available revenue. An interesting question came up. To qualify, each student is required to take 4 years of rigorous math. Several students completed difficult AP classes their junior year and thus did not take math their senior year. Do they qualify? I have recommended to the board, based on the budget and the fact that this exemption was not considered when the rules were announced, (hence there are probably many more students who would qualify if we made this exemption), that we not make this exemption. We should consider it carefully and if the decision is made to expand the qualifications, we do so in the future. I really had two purposes in sponsoring the legislation. First, to create a new mind set in students beginning 9th Grade so that they would be thinking of this scholarship and change behavior early on. Granting the scholarships this year by expanding the qualifications won’t necessary accomplish that. Second, I believe we need to help students with the rapidly rising tuition costs. It would be very difficult to reduce tuition. This money will go to our graduating high school students and will be used for tuition costs for Utah post-secondary education including UCAT schools. Granting the scholarships to graduating students now accomplishes this goal. We are receiving very positive feedback from guidance counselors in high schools and believe the first year grants will create an interest and compliance with current students looking forward to their graduation and future educational training. States who have started these programs have found two big problems. First, they make the scholarship a percent of tuition so that as tuition goes up, so do the costs of these scholarships. Second, they make the qualifications too easy so that in the end almost every one can qualify. We have avoided both problems with this bill but as we make exemptions, we raise the second challenge. It may be that some AP may qualify. As a college student, I did very well in all of my advance math classes but when I returned to USU after 2 ½ years on a LDS mission in Holland, I was very concerned that I had forgotten quantum mechanics. That made law school more inviting than to continue with my major in physics. Then someone raised the issue of concurrent enrollment qualifying. The Regency Scholarship program in my mind is to help students with the raising costs of tuition but more importantly to spur them on to better performance in tougher classes while in public education. What do you think?
posted by The Senate Site at 2:01 PM | Link
|
Your Government 2.0 Lab
Radio Free SenateKeep in TouchCurrent Discussions
Senate Site Feed
|
© 2008. All rights reserved. Designed by Jeremy Wright & His Brother-In-Law
9 Comments:
I think the Regency Scholarship is fantastic! One of the few education bills that will make a positive difference for Utah families. These kids are proven successful students, and this scholarship is a great investment in our students, our higher education institutions, and Utah's economic future. It encourages our kids to stay in state and maybe in school, and it keeps more higher ed money in state too. I hope it expands and continues, thanks!
I understand that it's not easy to play around with the budget for a program post-session. So I don't blame you for wanting to hold off on any qualification changes (especially without knowing exactly how much they would cost). The program as it currently stands will help many average and above-average students.
But some of the brightest students in the state take advanced AP math their junior year and then focus on other areas their senior year.
The AP program doesn't offer a math course beyond calculus. So, if a brilliant student completes Calculus AP her junior year, she can't take a fourth year of math unless the she has the resources to commute to a college campus (and if she has been enrolled in released time seminary, chances are that she has to spend her senior year mopping up other required credits without the flexibility to take a non-required math class).
I would assume that most of the students who are taking AP math as juniors are competent enough to find scholarship money without leaning on state funds. But that caveat understood, the current Regency Scholarship excludes them.
Thanks Scotty. Good point.
Sen. Hillyard,
I am still undecided as to whether the Regency Scholarship is a good idea in principal, but given that the law is already in place I think that waiting until next session to create an exemption for Junior AP Calc students is a prudent and good decision.
One thing I don't understand about Regency Scholarships is that they aren't available to home school students. Why?
If the policy is designed to get kids thinking about college and to provide tuition assitance, then why discriminate in the policy's implementation against those who receive their high school education in their home?
Please excuse my detraction from the point of your blog post Sen. Hillyard, but this is one of the issues that makes me question the wisdom of the Regents Scholarship idea. I thought I would take advantage of a opportunity to ask you to publicly address this issue.
Thanks for your comment, Derek. My goal was to create a change in attitude in eighth grade students to become more focused on improving their studies and take more difficult classes as they prepare for post secondary education.
I did not think about home schools but I will now for the fine-tuning we do next year. We'll have to consider the amount of money it will cost to fund the requests and how to measure the grade point average of the home schooled student. I would appreciate your input.
Sen. Hillyard,
Thank you for your response. I appreciate your willingness and openness to having a dialogue with the public on policy ideas.
One possbile way to handle the grade point measurement problem is to build on Utah's tradition of encouraging cooperation between the home school community and public schools. Home schoolers that want to be considered for a scholarship could submit a portfolio of work to their local school district or the state school board to determine their academic eligibility for a scholarship.
Another possibility is to allow home school parents to work with their local public school principals to create criteria of academic eligibility for the scholarships. Many home school parents already know their local public school administrators because they are dually enrolled, which might limit the added administrative burden.
While I have other concerns about Regency Scholarships, I appreciate you taking time to look at this one.
This program will definitely help many average and above-average students. This is the good opportunity for all students. I am totally agreed by scholarship..
**********************************
Philip Jones
Addiction Recovery Pennsylvania
I want to add a clarification to what Scotty has already posted. The AP program DOES offer another class beyond calculus and it is AP Statistics and Probability. However, this class is not offered in all high schools.
When I took AP Calculus, I was in my junior year. My senior year was the first year my high school had offered this new AP course and I took advantage of that opportunity.
Assume AP Statistics was NOT available to me and this scholarship program was offered while I was in school. I would have been incredibly frustrated to know that I had pushed myself since 7th grade in math (not just during my 4 high school years) and I would not be eligible for this program. However, students who were just one year behind me were.
It is not fair to deny those students eligibility for this money if it is our school system and the shortsightedness of our legislatures that created the barriers.
If we can not extend the eligibility due to budget limitations, we need to provide SOME alternative for these students to have an opportunity to obtain 4 years of math. Be it concurrent enrollment courses, online courses, or self-study programs. Those students have worked hard and deserve to be rewarded as well.
Dear Sen. Hillyard:
I just recently found out about this scholarship and would like to know what the qualifications are. What classes are required? Is there a minimum GPA required or gradein the class required? How can one apply? Thanks!
Sherri
Post a Comment
<< Home