[Oasfaa] Update on Oklahoma's Promise legislation

[Fair, Bryce]

Yesterday, April 22, there was legislative action on the three bills remaining that deal with Oklahoma's Promise.  Following is some information on the latest activity.


*       HB 2180 (related to minimum college credit hours to retain the award; expanding application period to the 11th grade in high school).  The House author of the bill, House Speaker Jeffrey Hickman, moved to reject the Senate amendments to the bill.  As you may recall, as earlier passed by the House, the bill would require all OKPromise students at four-year universities to complete 30 credit hours per year, with 8 specified exceptions (not including an exception for students working significant hours).  You can find the text of this earlier House version of the bill at http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2015-16%20ENGR/hB/HB2180%20ENGR.PDF.

In the Senate, the bill was amended to require all OKPromise college students, not just those at four-year universities, to complete 24 credit hours per year.  It also added an exception for students working at least 15 hours per week and added a one-year probationary period before the student would lose eligibility for the award.  You can find the text of this senate version of the bill at http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2015-16%20AMENDMENTS/Amendment%20&%20Engr/HB2180%20SAHB%20&%20ENGR.PDF.

Yesterday, Speaker Hickman moved to reject the Senate amendments and request a conference committee (a committee made up of both House and Senate members) to work on a possible final version of the bill that would have to be voted upon again by the full House and Senate.  You can find video of the House floor discussion of the Speaker's motion to reject Senate amendments at http://okhouse.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=&clip_id=1848&meta_id=879956.  (Note: one Representative indicates that OKPromise had $35 million in "carryover" funds last year.  As of June 30, 2014, the OKPromise trust fund had a balance of $12.4 million.  A portion of that balance is being spent in 2014-15 and by June 30, 2015, the fund is projected to have a balance of about $6 million.  An additional amount of the trust fund balance is budgeted to expended in 2015-16 leaving a projected balance of about $3 million by June 30, 2016.)


*       SB 177 (Changing the OKPromise family income limit at the time of application to federal AGI of $55,000).   The House author of the bill, Rep. Lee Denney, amended the bill on the House floor to leave the income limit amount at current level of $50,000 but still change the definition of "income" from "taxable and nontaxable income" to "federal adjusted gross income".   The primary effect of this change would be to exclude nontaxable income from being counted toward the $50,000 eligibility limit.  (The most common sources of nontaxable income we find are child support and social security benefits for children because of the death or disability of a parent.  Both of these sources of income usually terminate when the child turns 18.)  The State Regents are supportive of this change in the definition of income.  In the floor discussion of the bill, there was some confusion over whether this change would allow more students or fewer students to enroll in the program.  We project that there would be a modest increase in the number of students eligible to enroll in OKPromise in the 8th-10th grades.  Since the first students to be eligible to apply under this provision would be next year's 10th-graders (high school graduates of 2018), there would be no fiscal impact on the program until 2018-19 (about 1% increase in awardees; cost of about $500,000 in that first year).   The bill eventually passed by a vote of 89-0.   This bill too, will likely go to a conference committee.  You can find video of the House floor discussion of this bill at http://okhouse.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=99&clip_id=1848&meta_id=880144


*       HB 1672 would allow foster care students in the custody of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to be able to enroll in OKPromise after the 10th grade and would allow these students a little more time to complete the high school curricular requirements for OKPromise.  The bill passed the Senate floor yesterday by a vote of 43-0.  You can find the current text at http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2015-16%20FLR/SFLR/HB1672%20SFLR.PDF .  We expect that this bill will also go to a conference committee.


Bryce Fair
Associate Vice Chancellor for Scholarships and Grants
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
P.O. Box 108850
Oklahoma City, OK  73101-8850
Email:  bfair at osrhe.edu
Phone: 405-225-9162
Fax: 405-225-9230

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