INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's popular 21st Century Scholars program, which promises full college scholarships to needy students who stay out of trouble and get acceptable grades, needs changes in order to head off a multimillion-dollar shortfall, state officials said.
More than $37 million a year has been shifted from the state's primary financial aid program in order to meet the 21st Century Scholars obligations, which is more than double its state appropriation, The Indianapolis Star reported Wednesday.
Over the past five years, between 13 percent and 18 percent of the annual budget for the Frank O'Bannon Grant Program, a state scholarship program named for the late governor, has been redirected to the 21st Century program.
"If we don't do something, we won't have any money to take care of other need-based students. There just isn't enough money," said Teresa Lubbers, the state's commissioner for higher education.
Lubbers is expected to recommend changes during the State Budget Committee meeting Wednesday. Lawmakers asked for a review of financial aid programs last year in response to the state's budget shortfall.
The 21st Century Scholars program was started in 1990 under then-Gov. Evan Bayh. Students in sixth through eighth grades who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches can enroll in the program by signing a pledge to stay drug-free and maintain at least a 2.0 grade-point average in exchange for four years of free tuition at an Indiana public university.
Researchers have found that about 20 percent of those who signed up for the program as middle school students no longer met the low-income requirement as high school seniors, Lubbers said.
The current state law for the 21st Century Scholars program would need to be changed to allow a senior-year assessment of financial need. Some states, she said, have similar scholarship programs that adjust awards if needed.
"It's an entitlement," Lubbers said. "If you've done what you said you are going to do, you make good on your promise and make sure they go to college."
State Sen. Luke Kenley, chairman of the State Budget Committee, said he supports changing the process to have stronger controls on verifying compliance, including a reassessment of financial need.
"I don't think the program was ever conceived to be there for everybody," said Kenley, R-Noblesville. "I think there was the hope that it would reach out to people who otherwise may not have a chance to go to college, and that, of course, is based on need."
More than 100,000 students have taken advantage of the program since the first class in 1995, and the percentage of those going to college right after high school in Indiana has increased from 33 percent in 1986 to 63 percent in 2006.
April Mangas, a 38-year-old single mother with four sons — three of whom are in 21st Century program — said talk about backing off a promise made in middle school would be unfair.
"Who's to say that two years later I don't lose my job?" said Mangas, a factory worker from Union City. "Are they going to reassess it again? It doesn't seem right."
Her oldest son, Darcy Thomas, is a 20-year-old sophomore at Purdue University studying computer science and working as a mentor for younger 21st Century scholars.
"I've never come across someone whose financial [status] had changed that much," he said. "I know the program is expanding, but you'd think that would be accounted for. They knew all these people would be eligible."
Lubbers said any change would likely not apply to students who are already in the program, putting off any decrease in the financial impact on the state for six years.
College financial aid has been one state program to escape mandatory budget cuts, but Gov. Mitch Daniels hasn't made any guarantees about next year.
"Obviously, this program has very worthy goals," Daniels said. "But is it serving the young people it was designed for? Is it working or not working? No program, however attractive its intention, can be immune from answering these questions."
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