By Janelle Henderson
Next year, college students will finally receive the money they were promised 17 years ago when the Kentucky Lottery Corporation donates 100 percent of its proceeds to college grants and scholarship programs, in addition to child and adult literacy programs.
An estimated $167 million in proceeds will be distributed to merit-based scholarships and need-based grants by 2006-an increase of $33 million from last year.
College Access Program grants are projected to increase from $1,400 to $1,700 this year, and Kentucky Tuition Grants are projected to increase from $2,600 to $2,800.
No increase is expected to affect Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship recipients, said KEES Program Coordinator Becky Gilpatrick. The awards are distributed by the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority.
Freshman Tyran Dewalt said the money he received from his merit-based scholarship influenced his decision to remain in-state. He said he wants to be debt-free when he graduates from college.
“It’s preventing people from taking out loans and giving people the chance to go to school,” he said.
Dewalt is one of many college students who will benefit from the lottery proceeds. The number of students in college has increased, and the number of students remaining in Kentucky colleges has increased by 20 percent, said Sara Westerman, a communication specialist for the Kentucky Lottery.
Although optimistic about the increase of funding to education, Gilpatrick is uncertain how much benefit it will be to college students.
“With rising tuition prices, there’s not expected to be a major affect,” she said.
In its initial conception in 1989, proceeds from the Kentucky Lottery were given to the General Fund. A decade later, Senator Tim Shaughnessy proposed that proceeds be distributed to need-based grants and merit based scholarships. In 2000, adult and child literacy programs, including the “Read to Achieve” program and the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development were added.
Starting in 2006. three million dollars will automatically be deducted from the proceeds and given to literacy programs. Need-based programs, like the College Access Program grant and Kentucky Tuition Grants, will receive 55 percent of the proceeds and the remaining 45 percent will go to KEES.
Westerman said unclaimed Kentucky Lottery prize money will go into the KEES Reserve Fund to help maintain the scholarship fund. Eight million dollars is projected to go into the fund.
University of Louisville students have received $34 million from Kentucky Lottery proceeds.
