[Oasfaa] Important Update on OKPromise-OHLAP legislation

[Fair, Bryce]

On Monday morning, the House Education Committee passed a bill out of committee (SB 820) that would make several significant changes to the OKPromise-OHLAP program. Previously, the bill had only dealt with creating a dedicated funding source for the program, not changing the requirements of the program. A copy of the new version of the bill was not provided to us until last Friday. The text of the new version can be found at <http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/2007-08bills/HB/SB820_HCS.RTF>. 

The new version includes the following changes: 
*	Increasing the minimum high school GPA requirement for the program from 2.5 to 2.75. 
*	Requiring a minimum college retention GPA of 2.75 (you might check to see how many OKPromise students this would impact on your campus; we are trying to analyze this at the system level). 
*	Providing eligibility for homeschool students. 
*	Requiring that college students in the program comply with institution codes of conduct and refrain from substance abuse and commission of crimes and delinquent acts. 
*	Requiring that any participant in the program be a U.S. citizen or lawfully present in the U.S.

The news story in the Daily Oklahoman yesterday seemed to imply that the ACT requirement in the bill would apply to all students in the program; that is not the case.  The 22 ACT requirement in the bill applies only to students attending non-accredited schools or homeschool students, not to students in public schools or accredited private schools. 

Several of the changes could have significant implications for students in the program and the administration of the program. We are currently analyzing the impact of these proposed changes and hope these changes will be studied carefully by the Legislature before final decisions are made. We will continue to monitor the bill closely and provide updates through OASFAA.

Bryce Fair


Bryce Fair 
Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Scholarships & Grants 
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education 
Phone:  (405) 225-9162 
Fax:  (405) 225-9230 
E-mail:  bfair at osrhe.edu 

Mailing Address: 
P.O. Box 108850 
Oklahoma City, OK  73101-8850 

Street Address: 
655 Research Parkway, Suite 200 
Oklahoma City, OK  73104