LOGANSPORT — A new law has forced changes to the 21st Century Scholars Program, but state Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, said it will have minimal effects on those already enrolled in the program.
The program began in 1990 as a way to make college a possibility for students who otherwise would be unable to afford college. The problem, though, was that the number of students signing up for the program was growing at a time when funding was getting harder to find.
Head said he hoped the resulting changes were fair to both current and future scholarship recipients.
Those currently enrolled in the program will see few changes, Head said.
“Everyone in the program now will be grandfathered in,” he said.
“The only change being made is the GPA requirement.”
Previously, those enrolled in the program had to maintain a 2.0 GPA in middle school and high school to be eligible for the scholarship as seniors. The new law raises that average to 2.5.
The higher GPA requirement will also be in effect for future enrollees.
“Going forward there will be more changes, though,” Head said.
Among the biggest, he noted, is additional testing of a student’s financial need.
“Right now we test a student’s means one time in junior high to see if they qualify for free or reduced-price lunches,” Head said. “We saw people who were abusing the system.”
A family could enroll a child in the program, win the lottery a year later and still receive the scholarship when the child graduated from high school, the senator said.
Under the new guidelines, students will have to fill out a federal student aid form that will provide a clearer picture of a family’s financial need. Head said seniors were required to fill the form out for college anyway, so it shouldn’t be an added burden.
Scholarship money will be awarded on a sliding scale.
The program, as it stands, offers to pay four years of tuition at an Indiana public college or university to income-eligible students who enroll in the program as sixth-, seventh- or eighth-graders and fulfill a pledge of good citizenship.
The new law, however, says that not everyone will receive 100 percent tuition assistance.
“If a student has 10 percent need, they will get 10 percent of their tuition paid for instead of 100 percent,” Head said.
Those who have zero need as seniors will not walk away empty-handed, Head noted. He said they can qualify for up to $2,500 in scholarship money for fulfilling the pledge of good citizenship.
New enrollees will also have to participate in a course designed to show students what to expect in college.
“A lot of students in the program are first-generation college students,” Head said.
He said they might have no family or friends to talk to them about the demands of college. He said lawmakers were hoping the course would give kids a better chance at success in higher education.
Reflecting on the changes in the program, Head said, “These were some tough decisions to make.”
He said he never liked seeing a scholarship program scaled back, but he said he believed the new law was fair.
“I’m just glad we were able to save the program,” he said.
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