Representative Ann Clemmer has filed a constitutional amendment to require the Arkansas Lottery to allocate 35% of its revenue for college scholarships.
Right now Arkansas law does not require any kind of minimum percentage of lottery revenue be set aside for scholarships. As a result, the percentage allocated has been set incredibly low—approximately 22%, one of the lowest in the nation.
Video: See Family Council’s Policy Analyst, Josh Mesker, talk about lottery ticket vending machines on Fox 16 News.
Yesterday, a proposal was made to the Legislative Oversight Committee for the Arkansas Lottery in favor of reducing the amount of scholarship money awarded to each student attending college on the lottery’s dime.
The proposal would have reduced the scholarship awards by 10%, and was ultimately tabled until the legislators have had an opportunity to consider the proposal further. However, there are a number of reasons why lowering the scholarship amounts is just a bad idea.