Amendment Lowers Potential HOPE Scholarship Increases

A state house committee increased the HOPE scholarship awards today, but not by as much as some lawmakers would have liked.

Funded by lottery proceeds, HOPE scholarships are for qualifying students attending in-state colleges.

Bill sponsor Representative Leslie Winningham wanted to raise the base scholarship to $4,000 from its current level of $3,300.

But committee members were concerned about aggressive increases to the scholarships and lowered the number to $3,600.

Winningham disagrees and says the money is there.

“There’s 36 years, projected, for us to adjust sales any way we need to. I mean if the ship gets off course, you nudge it back on and there’s a lot of opportunities to do that.”

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the issue tomorrow.