Representative Ann V. Clemmer
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Committees
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Recent Meetings
Recent Transcript Excerpts
and the schools do not have to spend that money? I mean, if those are unfilled positions or if those people don't take insurance, that money just can go to other purposes at the school.
what purpose? Question. You recognize. Representative Linderman, isn't it true that right now the state is funding the schools for every matrix position,
I guess it's a good sign for education that we have enough kids making a 32 that we can't give them all a scholarship. So this just says when we start to figure out which of the kids that make a 32 are going to get the scholarship, we're going to let the Department of Higher Ed adjust these criteria
so that homeschool kids can compete. Thank you. I appreciate a good vote. Representative Clemmer has
We're not trying to create the formula here. We're letting the Department of Higher Ed look at the criteria and let them adjust the weighting because that can be done. They would have flexibility with the current formula. That's currently in rule, not in statute. so we're not adding new rules for them. We're just giving them the authority and expressing our wishes that we want the rules adjusted so that homeschool kids can compete. And again, in the past, the base criteria for this scholarship is a 32 on the ACT.
away quite a few. So we just want the homeschoolers to
We could give it to everybody that qualified, and now we're having to turn
the last session, and it was a Senate bill then, but it came before the House Education Committee, and it was creating a new formula.
Almost regardless of a homeschooler's qualifications, because they don't have a rank in class, they automatically lose 10 points in the formula. And we're not trying to create a new formula. We simply let the Department of Higher Ed assure us, let them work with the formula so that homeschoolers can compete and not be discriminated against in the consideration of a governor's scholarship. While I'm up here, I probably should plug the fact that we don't have nearly enough money for governor's scholarship programs, but used to.
to explain the bill? Members, this is an agreed upon bill. It passed the House Education Committee without any dissent. It's not a controversial bill. What it does is it allows homeschoolers to just be, to compete on equal footing with public school students to receive the governor's scholarship. What has happened in the past is regardless
can think of two off the top of my head so you've only
those are pretty regular you've only had three requests for something higher there's something taller all right thank you very
thank you madam chair the question was asked how many you had turned down how many have you approved I
the qualifier is a 32. Right. I mean, that's... 32 and a 3.5. And a 3.5. So you're not going to be considered if you don't have a 32 or a 3.5. Okay. So what did you say?
time now, all these 5Ks. Thank you for being
And Director Broadway is here, and he can come to the table if anybody wants him to. We think we've worked all these things out. I'm happy to take any questions. Senator, if you would make your way to the end
If you wonder if this might be an issue, We had a homeschooler that was a National Merit Scholarship winner that did not qualify for the Governor's Distinguished. So obviously they were of exceptional ability, and yet that student was not eligible. And that was just last year, and I'm sure there have been others. So we're just trying to create it. And I pulled this bill down, and we amended it with more input from the Department of Higher Ed.
but all this bill does is put the responsibility with the Department of Higher Ed that they will ensure that the language here on line 32 through 35, they will ensure that the weight assigned to each individual criteria under this subdivision does not place a homeschool, public school, or private school student at a disadvantage. We're just trying to create a level playing field for all students heading off to college.
One of the things, though, we found is that over the years, the formula has been very difficult for homeschoolers to meet because of the rank in class issue. That had a point value attached to it, and essentially there was no rank in class for a homeschooler. And so they started out then at a 10-point deficit. And all this bill does, so we're not trying to change the formula,
But we ran – I came to the end of the table with Senator Gilbert Baker to propose changing the formula used to calculate who would be the recipient of the Governor's Distinguished Scholarship. This is a pretty exclusive club to be in, to be a recipient of the Governor's Distinguished Scholarship. It does require an ACT of 32 and other factors that come into play like GPA, school activities, community activities, rank in class.
Bills Discussed
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