Republican Sponsored Lottery Bills Pass In Senate Education

Republicans in the state Senate won a round today by passing bills lowering the GPA requirement for keeping a lottery scholarship and distributing lottery reserve money. Both came over weak resistance by Democrats in the Senate Education Committee.

Jim Tracy, a Shelbyville Republican, sponsored the bill that would spend some lottery reserves for local school building projects.

“It takes a hundred million of those funds to use for school districts across the state, divided up on a per-student basis, to build capital projects in their districts. Now capital projects may not be just brick and mortar, it can be updating their energy, lighting, it could be insulation, it could be new roofing, all those issues.”

Democrats had vowed last week to fight the proposal, but when the vote came, Senators Reginald Tate of Memphis and Andy Berke of Chattanooga abstained. They represent Shelby and Hamilton counties, which would receive multi-million dollar checks under the proposal. So now, Democrats seem unlikely to defeat the bill on the Senate floor.

The second measure which passed will allow HOPE scholarship recipients to continue to receive their student aid, even if their grade point average dips as low as 2.75. Currently a student loses the scholarship if the GPA dips below 3.0.

The bill would phase in the 2.75 change, one class a year, as long as lottery revenues allow. Democrats wanted an immediate and across the board change to 2.75.

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Senator Tate represents part of Shelby County, which qualifies for $4.9 million under the Tracy bill. Memphis, separately, gets $12 million. Senator Berke is from Hamilton County, which gets $4.2 million.

Other counties and the amount of “brick & mortar” funding they would get under the Tracy bill:

Davidson $7.6 million

Wilson $1.5 million*

Williamson $3.2 million**

Rutherford $4.3 million***

Robertson $1.1 million

Sumner $2.7 million

Dickson $885,707

Cheatham $739,838

*Including Lebanon special school district

** Including Franklin special school district

***Including Murfreesboro special school district

Knox $5.7 million

Montgomery $2.9 million

Bradley $1.5 million ****

Hamblen $1 million

Madison $1.4 million

Maury $1.2 million

Putnam $1 million

Sevier $1.5 million

Sullivan $1.3 million

Tipton $1.2 million

****Includes Cleveland special school district