Terrill eye expansion of 'Oklahoma's Promise'

Despite predictions of a lean budget year, some lawmakers are looking to expand eligibility in the program to include as many as 4,300 new students each year.

Under current law, students are eligible if their families earn $50,000 or less when they apply for the program by their sophomore year.

But a task force has recommended increasing that level so that adjusted gross income minus the amount for exemptions equals $50,000 or less.

Another recommendation would automatically adjust for family size so that larger families would be allowed to have higher incomes.

For example, a married couple with four children could earn $70,400 in adjusted gross income and still qualify for the program under the proposal.

State Rep. Randy Terrill (House 53, R-Moore), said he intends to author legislation during the upcoming session to put the changes into law. He said the goal of the program is to increase the number of college graduates in the state, and the changes would better target those students who might not otherwise be able to attend college.

"I think the key recommendation coming out of this task force is this sliding scale of eligibility based not only upon income but on family size, so essentially that calibration of the program would be designed to make that program more family friendly," Terrill said.

The proposed changes in income eligibility ultimately would lead to an increase of nearly 4,400 additional students in the 2012 high school graduating class, said Bryce Fair, who oversees the scholarship program for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.

Fair also pointed out the fiscal impact of adding those students would not be realized until 2012, when it would coast about $8 million. The costs would then incrementally increase to about $43 million projected in 2019.

Terrill predicts the delayed fiscal impact of expanding the program could make it more palatable for state lawmakers.

"Once the change is made, those families and their kids get to start signing up next year," Terrill said. "The political impact is immediate, even though the fiscal impact won't be felt for another four years."

Without a state scholarship that pays for her tuition at the University of Central Oklahoma, 18-year-old freshman Brittney Judge doesn't know what she would be doing. But she knows one thing — without the help of Oklahoma's Promise, she wouldn't be in college.

"I'd probably have my own place and be working," said Judge, whose father is a single dad raising two daughters. "I wouldn't know where to go with my life. I'd be stuck."