LITTLE ROCK — Too many high school seniors still don’t know they can apply for a college scholarship funded by the state lottery program, and officials need to do a better job spreading the word, lawmakers complained Monday.
“Is the advertising we are doing reaching the students where they are?” said Sen. Johnny Key, R-Mountain Home, co-chairman of the Arkansas Lottery Commission Legislative Oversight Committee. “I think that is one of the outreach issues that the Lottery Commission needs to look at, we need to look.”
Key spoke after the committee reviewed findings from a recent study of the distribution of lottery scholarships based on race, gender and other factors.
The study of the first two years of the lottery scholarship was conducted by the Arkansas Research Center and presented to the panel by Shane Broadway, interim director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
According to the report, more female high school seniors than male students applied for the scholarships and received them in 2010 and 2011.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The report said 53.8 percent of all female high school seniors applied and of those, 78.2 percent were awarded scholarships for the fall 2011 semester. It said 43.2 percent of male high school seniors applied and 73.7 percent of them were awarded scholarships.
The report also said 53.4 percent of white high school seniors applied for the lottery scholarship in 2011, with 80.8 percent receiving scholarships. It said 45.2 percent of black seniors applied and 60.3 percent received scholarships, while 29.2 percent of Hispanic seniors applied with 68.4 percent receiving scholarships.
Among the counties, Miller County had the lowest percentage of applicants with 28.7 percent, and 71 percent of them received scholarships. Stone County had the highest percentage of high school seniors apply with 73.9 applying and 76.5 percent of those receiving scholarships.
In Jefferson County, 56.3 percent applied and 63.8 received the scholarships.
Broadway told the panel that the focus has been trying to get the students into college with the lottery scholarships and making sure they keep the scholarships, which are worth $4,500 annually for four-year institutions and $2,250 for two-year schools.
“It’s just not getting them there,” Broadway said. “It’s getting them through.”
Rep. Tracy Steele, D-North Little Rock, who sponsored legislation in 2009 requiring the study, said the board needs to make sure that everyone knows about the scholarships. He said many high school students do not know they are eligible.
“We have a challenge … of ensuring that all students are notified and receive the type of technical assistance that they need to fill out the paperwork and make sure that they have an opportunity to be a part of the process,” Steele said. “We know that every single student may not be able to be awarded, but every student needs to have full access to the information and the type of assistance they need to fill out the necessary paperwork.”
Key said after the meeting that he also has talked to a number of students who said they were unaware of the scholarship opportunity.
“It’s amazing that after more than three years that we still have to get information out there for these students,” he said, adding that often students pay attention to television commercials promoting the lottery, and in some cases parents are not pushing their children to attend college.
Julie Baldridge, spokeswoman for the lottery, said in an e-mail Monday afternoon that the Lottery Commission works “collaboratively with ADHE to do the advertising for the scholarships.”
“Our job is to produce the ads and pay for the placement, but we follow the direction of ADHE,” she said.
Last week, state higher education officials said they had notified more than 8,000 Arkansas seniors that they have been awarded lottery-funded college scholarships for the next year.
Broadway said Monday that he expects more to be awarded between now and July and applications come in.