The Lottery - My First Thoughts

As best I can tell, there are two groups of legislators working on the lottery. One group is involved in how to implement the lottery; i.e. creating an agency to administer and run the lottery and establishing the boundaries on what games can and cannot be played. We saw the first working copy of that groups efforts this week. On Wednesday after President Clinton spoke to us we had a copy of the draft legislation on our desks and upon adjournment Wednesday we gathered for an open meeting in the Old Supreme Court for a discussion and questions. The meeting was called by the Senate State Agencies Committee and the House Rules Committee who will be hearing the legislation when it is filed. I think it was a good beginning - there is work yet to be done but much work has been done. While I did not support the lottery now that you have made it clear that you are in favor of it I think we should get it implemented as quickly as we can so that the dollars begin to accumulate for scholarships.

Which leads me to the second group which are the ones working on the scholarship portion of the lottery. While the implementation is important, so that we get the job done correctly and maximize the dollars available for scholarships, the scholarships are what will ultimately help us to bring the education level of our people up and allow us to compete for better paying jobs in this global economy. It appears to me the inclination at this time is to give the scholarship dollars to higher education to administer. At this point I believe that to be a terrible idea. Higher education currently has roughly 51 million dollars in unused scholarships. For whatever reasons and excuses there are about why those dollars go unawarded the fact remains that there are Arkansas students that need help and we have not helped them. I support and believe a new agency should be created to administer all scholarships. There should be just one application for a student to complete and then the new agency should be able to say here are the programs that are available to you. It should be a simple - student friendly process. These students, both young and the non-traditional students, represent our future and it is in our best interest to help them.

As I voiced that opinion this week I have been told several times that I am wrong by higher ed types and I expect to receive more information this week as they try to explain to me the faults with my line of reasoning. I look forward to the discussion. I do want to thank those involved with the process for their leadership and their hard work.

As a general rule I don't go into too much policy type discussions here on my blog. I am aware that this is not a news service and that there are others who spend much time and energy on those efforts. My hope is to just communicate who I am and what I am about as I work for you -and I do try to remember that I do work for you. Thanks!