Eighty percent of Indiana's upcoming high school seniors eligible for the state's 21st Century Scholars program aren't meeting the requirements to receive those scholarships.
The program was created to give low-income students access to a college degree.
The legislature created new requirements for the 21st Century Scholars program back in 2011. At the time, only about 10 percent of students who earned the scholarships were graduating college on time. New requirements included that each student make a graduation plan, hold a grade point average of at least 2.5, take a career interest assessment and visit a college campus.
Only 20 percent of the students the state aims to help are now on track to qualify.
Senate budget architect Luke Kenley helped craft the new requirements and says the state needs to ensure its scholars are as well-prepared as possible to finish college on-time.
"When you look at the requirements objectively, they don't seem to be all that strenuous," he says. "And so I'm puzzled why the rates are kind of low – and I'm concerned, obviously."
Kenley says reexamining the requirements might be in order during next year's budget-writing session. But he adds that he doesn't want to sacrifice their rigor.