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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Board of Regents wants the state to award a $1,000 scholarship to every high school graduate who completes a college-prepatory curriculum with a B average.
The Regents Scholarship Program is proposed in a bill sponsored by Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan. State officials estimate it would cost about $7 million a year to pay for the 7,000 students expected to qualify. The money would be put into an account for students beginning in eighth grade and earn interest until they graduate.
Some would like to see even a larger scholarship.
"We have been very modest and proposed a $1,000 scholarship, but I would like to give them $2,500 or $3,000," said Richard Kendell, recently retired Utah commissioner of higher education. "Symbolically that says something very important to a kid in the eighth grade and to their parents: ... 'stay on task and take these classes, get good grades, and you can go to college."'
Hillyard believes offering a scholarship would encourage parents and grandparents to contribute to students' college savings funds and would decrease the need for remedial courses at the college level.
Utah has 35,000 eighth-graders, but only one in five is expected to qualify for the scholarship by the time each class graduated. The scholarship would be worth about $1,350, including five years of accrued interest. It would require completion of a core curriculum of four years of math, four years of English, 3 1/2 years of social science, three years of science and some foreign language.
"We're saying, endow this eighth-grade class with $7 million. By the time they are ready to go to college, they get automatic admission to a Utah school and a scholarship," Kendell said. "These kids have something to shoot for. Parents are going to grab onto that. They'll work hard for that. I'd like to see the private sector kick in money."
The Legislature convenes on Jan. 21.
Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
