ALC-Lottery Oversight Subcommittee
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Unknown speaker
0:00
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
2:30
members I am so sorry um I didn't realize we were five minutes past so let's sit down and get busy
Once again, and for my last time, I will call this meeting to order, and we do have another meeting in here at 3.30. That's not to cut off your comments, but just know that we kind of have a little bit of a fine line of time. We have any minutes? No, we don't do it. Okay, so my co-chair is not here. I don't have any further comments, and so we'll just go ahead and get started.
Mr. Hagler, when you get there, tell me which one. Come on ahead. Make sure I say it right. Do you say
Speaker 10
3:46
Hagler or Hagler? Madam Chairwoman, in California, it was Hagler. In Arkansas, it appears to be Hagler. I
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
3:52
answered either. Okay. Well, I like Hagler because I don't think you're a
hag. my grandfather would thank you okay all right then everybody we are on items item c
so that's a exhibit c1 through c3 you're recognized mr haggler thank you I'm having the same issue I
Speaker 18
4:44
had last time okay very good thank you very much
Speaker 19
4:49
thank you for the opportunity to be here today I'll start by going through what's being shown on the overhead. This is with regard to the month of November. We'll start by looking at comparative income statements for the month of November. You'll notice that November 2020, we had total revenues of $43 million compared to $36 million in November of 2019. In my last
Speaker 22
5:16
appearance, I discussed the fact that we're seeing a bit of an artificial inflation of numbers
Speaker 19
5:21
by virtue of the pandemic environment. limited options for players to engage in other forms of entertainment or driving them towards a lottery purchase. You'll see that with regard to and I apologize let me make sure that I
Speaker 12
5:42
to budget again I would caution you when we look at budgetary numbers this is an unusual year it's historic
Speaker 22
5:48
times so internally while we look at budget budget is not something
that's currently driving decisions um we feel like it's a little bit of an artificial number the the budget when it was set was set in april as we led into a pandemic and there was great uncertainty um normally i would do a budget revision uh when we're trending is the numbers that you're seeing however i believe that we're still in historic times and and to go through the exercise of trying to revise a budget in the current environment would be an exercise in futility so I would ask you again to with a little note of caution with regard to how to compare
with regard to total operating expenses you'll notice and and there's anytime you see an increase in sales expenses are soon that will soon follow and in such is the case so when you see
Speaker 19
6:40
the increased number in revenues you'll also see a corresponding increase in operating expenses the real challenge there is
Speaker 22
6:45
to try and keep that at a percentage number that is low enough that you're getting a nice return on your investment
Speaker 19
6:52
if you look at the income before transfers this is
interesting November of 2020 you see 6.8 million you see November of 2019 6.8 million so there again increase in sales does not always translate to an increase in income nor does it translate automatically into an increase in net proceeds but you'll see the interesting dichotomy when you look at net proceeds for November of 2020 versus November of 2019 where you have net proceeds of 8.2 million this year and last year net proceeds for the same period were 5.9 million. This has been driven largely as
a result of an increase in sales of instant tickets and you've probably read the articles and of course I visited with you last month about instant tickets and what that does to the numbers on the balance sheet. Net proceeds are something that as I mentioned last month are extremely important to us. We begin every meeting internally with a discussion of how our decision is going to impact net proceeds. We do the same when we look at expenses with the lottery staffing or anything else all right if you look now the comparative income statements
Speaker 22
8:09
year-to-date November 30th 2020 versus November 30th 2019 again
Speaker 19
8:16
you're seeing a significant updraft with total revenues of 232 million versus 193 million in the previous year total operating expenses correspondingly rise, not quite in line. You see a 22.4% increase in instant games, instant game prizes increased 26.6%. So while your sales go
up you're not always making more money and I think that's a perfect example when you look at that in a vacuum that that shows the the balance and it's a bit of a chess game when you're trying to drive net proceeds and yet at the same time drive top line sales. So when you look at net proceeds for the comparative, net proceeds year to date as of November 30th of 2020, $40,802,000 versus previous year $28 million. It's a $12 million jump and
that's a 44% increase. When you look at that, I'd like to be able to take credit for all of that as team lottery, but again, I would point out that while I believe a lot of
Speaker 22
9:27
that increase is organic and it would be there regardless of the environment, again, we're very cautious in showing you these numbers because the expectations become set, and if the world were to return to as we knew it before, we believe that we will encounter some headwinds, and I will continue to tell you and caution you on that because it's something that we see when we look at the data in a
micro environment on a game-by-game basis. Comparative income statements, year-to-date, actual versus budget. Again, this is one that I'm going to just click through unless there are any questions. it's a number that normally would be very important to us and it would be a guide in the current environment. We look at it but I would be remiss if I failed to tell you that we don't put a lot of weight in the budget currently. We're self-funded so I guess
it's a little bit of a difference than if we were a funded agency but the fact is we have to live in the here and now. We're in a competitive marketplace and recognize we're one of the few state agencies that actually raises revenue so we do have to we do operate and and think a bit more like a corporation than traditional
Speaker 19
10:48
agency ADHE transfer analysis I had a question last month so we included this in a little bit
different format and we gave you a breakdown based on 2021 net proceeds for the fiscal year which began in July. Currently we have a total of $40,802,000. We have unclaimed prizes of $1,193,000 and the total transfer to ADHE to the account was $41,995,000. If you look at 2021 budget you'll
see that there was a $30 million handle on the budget. So you're $11 million over budget. And again, it all drives back to my earlier comments about the environment that we're currently in. That's
Speaker 26
11:50
all I have for the overhead section. I do have additional reports that I've provided to
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
11:59
Chairwoman. Does anybody have any questions? If
you do, go ahead and
dial in, please. At this point, we don't have any questions. Mr. Pagler, are we performing kind of commensurate with the way other lottery enterprises around the country are performing during this pandemic or is
is there anything out as an outlier the way we're performing? I'm
Speaker 22
12:25
pleased to report that that the Arkansas scholarship lottery is performing very well when compared to its peers. When you look at lotteries that do not have the benefit of a
digital distribution chain such as iLottery we're performing in an outsized manner. We're out performing lotteries such as the state of Michigan which is significantly bigger and is considered one of the whale lotteries they've been extremely hampered by a complete shutdown in their economy and the lottery was not deemed an essential business and and so their their balance sheet is deteriorated to a point that quite honestly I think the state of Michigan will be three or four years in recovery state of Arkansas has done very well in that regard we were able to to keep the
doors open and perform very well. We also are a little bit different than some of the sister states in that we are heavily relying on the sales of instant tickets. Other state lotteries have more of a portfolio that pulls revenue from the draw side, the draw games. We're trying very hard to balance that out. That's a little bit of a difficult dance to do because you're still trying to generate significant outsized net proceeds so as you look to tune your portfolio
of games one of the things that you do not want to do is cannibalize the current demand for the games you have you want you want to grow those games organically so we've spent a lot of time in the last two months looking at the game portfolio and determining how we can continue to drive revenue on the draw game side which has higher margins you're not required that you sell as much to make more in
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
14:11
net proceeds. Okay, thank you. Senator Flowers has a question. Senator Flowers, go ahead.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
14:17
I think I see the answer to my question. I know that you had a note on here that net proceeds do
not include unclaimed prize amounts, but it's on this other page. We actually break that
Speaker 19
14:32
out two different ways. unclaimed prizes are held for a specified period of time and then they're transferred over into net proceeds. So we track those separately until we hit the trigger point where they actually flow over into net proceeds. So you'll see it broken down two different ways. You'll see where the
unclaimed prizes are excluded from the total net proceeds amount and then you'll
Speaker 39
14:55
also see in the report where it's added in and you'll
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
15:00
see that as a total and so does operating expense include what's paid out in terms of these is that what instant game prizes represents and draw game prizes represents that's your payout okay correct are we trying to get a certain percentage of pay out well it's
Speaker 22
15:21
that's an interesting question you want the the largest return on investment you can
Speaker 26
15:26
while still ensuring that you're generating sufficient net proceeds. Right now, if you look at the lottery from the inception in August of 2009, year-over-year return is averaging 18%. If you look at last year, it was 16.84%. For payout? Not for payout. That was for return. So that's actually what the lottery was returning in the form of net proceeds and essentially its profit. so
Speaker 26
15:57
so on an instant game you'll see payout somewhere between
80 and 82 percent of the total amount that you sell and that's why the margins are so thin because you have operating expenses retailer commissions and once you hit certain trigger points under the term contracts vendors are entitled to bonus payments so by way of example as instant sales go up we we blow through these these these triggers that that uh provide for bonus to the vendors and this is this is normal in the lottery world it's not unusual but so in
an instant game you're looking at before expense margins of 20 percent by the time you take out retailer commissions expenses etc etc your margins on an instant game are going to be somewhere between about four percent and six percent. On a draw game your margins are much higher than that so whereas you would be looking at a 20 percent gross margin to play with on the instant side in the draw game world you would be looking at about a 45 percent margin. So the margins are
considerably larger. The payouts are larger but less frequent. So the prizes in the draw games are typically bigger prizes in the instant games are typically smaller the reason that that we were that we're trying to balance the portfolio is is is just for that reason alone we can make more money selling draw games than we can selling instant games if in a perfect world but you also have to consider what the demand in the marketplace is and in Arkansas historically and currently
that demand is for instant games. But I'm pleased to report that we've started doing some analysis of our players and trying to figure out exactly what they play, how often they play, and what we're finding out is we're starting to see a little bit of a bridge being built between the instant game player and the draw games.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
17:59
Well, do other states have algorithms that allow
for a certain percentage for payout? All games have what's known as a matrix that
Speaker 19
18:12
determines the payout for the game. So there is an algorithm that's kind of the back end of the game and when you're...
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
18:20
So there's a set percentage for payout? Yes
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
18:29
game. Each game has a different payout. So it's not
Speaker 22
18:32
just in instant games category? Every instant game, your odds of winning an instant
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
18:38
game depend on the instant game that you're playing. Mr. Hagler. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Flowers. When you get to the next report is exhibit C.
So if there are certain things you know you need to highlight or that do that in the interest of time, because I know we need to, I want everybody to get everything done and learn what they need to learn but and to the members if you would look over that report if you haven't if you have questions let's think about that too so that way we don't have to go through this page by page unless there's some uh necessary reason for you
Speaker 19
19:14
to do so sure absolutely with with regard to the reports that follow i think one thing that that
Speaker 22
19:19
was raised last month that i'll touch on again
or the retail sales by county i referred to the big five and i mentioned last month that there are five counties that traditionally and almost exclusively occupy the top five seats with regard to sales. Pulaski, Washington County, Jefferson County, Craighead County, and Faulkner County. You'll see those numbers listed in the reports. Pulaski County was 7.9 million, Washington 1.8 million, and all the way down to Faulkner County, which was 1.5 million. So those are the big five. You'll routinely see those five counties outperform the rest of the counties with regard to lottery
sales. Active retailers are still just a smidge below 2,000 at 1,962. We're keeping a close eye on the number of retailers we have. The pandemic environment has not been good to all of them. We expect to see some attrition with regard to that number. We do not expect that attrition to result in significant impact with regard to revenue. The statement of net position, 164.5 million is the total assets and deferred outflow total liabilities of 157 million that number is
going to be largely static each time i appear before you the statement of revenues expenses and change in net position are also reflected you'll also see the operating revenues with regard to instance 43 million online 6.5 million and so on with regard to statement of revenues and expenses year over year we're outperforming we're beating budget those numbers are there and they're reflective if you have questions I'd be happy to answer those with regard to net proceeds
transfer to education trust net proceeds for the month of November were 8.2 million academic challenge scholarship trust is at 34 million and the workforce challenge scholarship trust is at 83.9 million with regard to unclaimed prizes the total year to date for fiscal year to date which would be July 20 when we began is 1.193 million and again after a certain period all of those funds will be transferred over and included into net proceeds. OAL diversity report is set out.
Those numbers have only changed one since my last appearance here and those percentages are reflected as well. We're proud of the diversity that we have at the lottery and we'll continue to be committed to that. With regard to audit reports, we did receive one audit report since I last met with you. That was a federal tax withholding. Internal audit found no deficiencies, no observations, and made no recommendations. We've done very well in the internal audit process this year. The instant and fast play games are all listed for you to see. With regard to ADH
transfers. I just discussed that with you. Total transfers year to date is 41.9 million. That's on a five-month basis. We're currently trending somewhere between seven and eight million a month. So if you take, if you want to extrapolate and try to do a little bit of forecasting, you can add another seven to that. That would put us at 48.9 million. We can round that off to 50 million. If we can perform again through the last six months of the year at the same level we would be very very pleased that would put us at a hundred million I make no
guarantees but that's our goal and that's what we're shooting for that would be a very nice number to deliver to Arkansas scholarships there was one other item that I had included late and I'm not sure if it made your agenda but we're terribly excited about it and I'd like to take just a moment to tell you about a procurement that we're making at the lottery all of our draw games that are not multi-state games, but our state draw games are drawn on machines that are located at our headquarters in downtown Little Rock. Those machines are good for five years. These
machines are heavily relying on software that's built into the machine, and at the end of the five-year life, they stop supporting that software. So it's much like an older phone when it begins to die because it's not supported any longer. We've reached the five-year mark. Our time out on our machines is March of 21. Historically, lotteries have used what are known as manual draw machines which require human intervention. It requires an individual to type in numbers. It requires an auditor to confirm numbers by typing those in. We've seen transposal of numbers. There are errors
that can occur just due to human nature. We are moving to what is called an auto draw machine. It performs these tasks internally and provides an internal audit report. You do still have a draw manager there to oversee the function. You also have an auditor there to receive the report but it takes the human error out of it and and and greatly reduces our liability. The cost for those machines is only slightly higher than the manual machines and with the manual machines we're required to keep a staff of three to operate those machines. With the auto draw machines it requires
a staff of one. We are pushing that procurement through and I
Speaker 10
24:23
believe it's sitting on the governor's desk, but I did want to advise you of that. We think that's
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
24:29
a real step in the right direction. Thank you. You probably said, because I was looking at something else, but what's the cost savings
Speaker 22
24:36
there, or is it just a little bit more? The machines are actually a little bit more on the front end. I believe it's $137,500 for three machines. That's the initial cost versus manual machines that would have been about $124,000. The annual maintenance cost is about
$7,000 more a year over the life of the contract. But we were in a unique situation where we had one draw manager who was nearing retirement in January, and we had an internal auditor who was resigning to accept a position in the private sector. So this dovetailed very nicely. We were able to shed two personnel and benefits and build that into the cost of the machine. So we believe it's an advancement. All right. Okay. Thank
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
25:18
you. Um, I don't have anybody, uh, lit up for a
question. Um, so if there's not anything else, yeah, you have a question. Uh, no C3 is listed as part of the package, but it's, it's, we're going to, I'm going to talk about that right now. This is what we've got to report. Um, so, uh, item C3 are the recommendations from us to, legislative council. So, Senator Hickey, did you have a question about that?
Oh, I forgot the light, too. I'm sorry about that. I think
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
26:05
I'm on more of a comment, if that's okay, Madam Chair. Yeah, sure. Just so that we're just not going to look over these. On bullet point three, where we have the Arkansas Lottery Oversight Subcommittee, should continue to monitor the funds available to guarantee the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships and Workforce Challenge Scholarships remain solvent within its parameters. The reason I want to do this, of course, is because we have an upcoming session, and we know there's always multiple people that want to try multiple things with the Academic
Challenge Scholarship. The way to keep that solvent, and I even thought about to try to run legislation, as a lot of you all know whenever the lottery started they started in the same year that the funds were coming in we should have run that one year in arrears we have that somewhat corrected as good as we could by we have a floor on on the first amount and those those are the ones that are in the pipeline and we are paying them any future scholarships that we do if this if we're going
to be able to monitor that we need to wait a year before we just start dispersing those which is what we did with the workforce challenge and also I believe the concurrent that Senator Sturge had put in so that's just something I want this committee to remember and the education committee if we could all strive to make sure if you're working
Speaker 62
27:27
with the bureau to actually draft the legislation that way okay thank
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
27:34
you ma'am that's a very appropriate um comment by the way because
i may be one of those actors thank you for always reminding me senator all right i don't have anybody else in the queue so if that's all for you mr haggler you have anything else you want to present to us i i do not madam chairwoman all right then thank you very much and i hope you have a happy holiday and merry christmas thank you very much okay So the next item on the agenda, the next item on the agenda is Dr. Markham, Arkansas Department of Higher Education. And Nick, is Nick here too?
Nick Fuller? I'm not trying to make you come,
I'm just noticing that you're on the agenda. I don't want you to think you're dismissed before you get here members that's exhibit d you've got a copy uh a summary copy i guess i think of what they're going to be talking about would that be a fair characterization yes ma'am all right okay you're recognized let's introduce yourselves
Speaker 69
28:46
okay thank you madam chair maria markham director of
Speaker 46
28:49
the Division of Higher Education. Nick Fuller, Assistant Director for Finance for the
Speaker 72
28:58
Division of Higher Education. All right, you're recognized to proceed. Okay, I am here
Speaker 74
29:02
today to present the recommendations for any changes to the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship Program from the Division of Higher Ed. Most of these recommendations are things that we've talked about in this committee several times, but have not yet made their way into code, and I wanted to bring those up to you today. The first is authorization for the division to promulgate rules for scholarship
appeals. I have never had the authority to make decisions about appeals. We don't have the authority to create a process for that. At this point, I exercise exceptions as they are specifically stated, but we don't have a formalized appeal process. So I think that it would create a lot more clarity for our students on what would necessitate an appeal and to give us the authority to move through those processes for students i i think
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
29:51
when we've talked about this before there was also the added value of we have something in place
it doesn't rely on one person to make what could be perceived as a subjective decision as opposed to everybody knowing the process ahead of time yes and that is something that yeah i i think that's exactly what we need to do that okay so what that process that so
Speaker 74
30:13
did you say there's yeah there's we called out the specific piece of or the specific area of code that would need to be amended to allow for an appeals process to be
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
30:23
developed by the agency okay and the draft is being developed or is developed already does does any member have a question about about this item
all right that seems like good business to me let's
Speaker 74
30:37
go on to the next one um the second was to develop a needs-based component to the Arkansas Academic Challenge Program. We've also discussed this you know for several years the fact that we do not have a true needs-based financial aid program in Arkansas and we have been working to propose such a program for quite some time and we're calling this the Challenge Plus. I think that a draft of this has been floated around
is that correct um but this would be a um it would build upon the academic challenge program and allow for a sliding
Speaker 81
31:09
scale of tiered awards to be made based on student need well the draft hasn't floated
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
31:15
to me yet so would you talk about it just a little bit more about what it's actually doing
Speaker 74
31:21
um well i think that there's still some work being done in blr so i may be a little shy on some of the details but basically it would be for students who qualify for the academic challenge we would use their estimated family contribution as reported on the fafsa to determine the level
of unmet need that student has then we would look to what we had in excess lottery proceeds available for this program and create tiered awards based on need we've suggested that no student should ever receive more than that five thousand dollar highest award level that we have now so students based on their their level of need could get up to that total five thousand dollar award prior to their senior year in college and so this would i believe the way it's written is it's going to be as funds are available so we wouldn't be able to over over promise in this
area so we would have to you know take a look every year to see how many awards we
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
32:17
could make and at what level so this is not widening widening or increasing the number of students who would be helped it's concentrating on those who are already in the pipeline if they have need yes it could be what do you mean it could
Speaker 74
32:31
be well not all students i mean it may not be students that are currently in the pipeline but it would be those who had the potential to be in the pipeline so those who met the requirements for academic challenge they would basically be able to get a
kicker on their award based on their and remind us what the requirements are for the academic challenge um well the academic requirement is a
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
32:52
19 on the act and that's pretty much and that's pretty much it and super scored as well yeah yeah um so i i do have a concern about this i mean this is not all of everything i'm saying has come from hearsay because like i said i have not seen this bill um i think there is no question that arkansas has needs and one thing that's always always
concerned me since we since we changed the requirement for the challenge scholarship is the people
that we are cutting out of getting a scholarship and the demographics are pretty clear of what's happening with
those those students who don't make the 19 but might have the 2.5 that we started out with and my concern about this is the kids who've already gotten a scholarship and I get it they can have needs now we're going to help those students some more if I'm characterizing
this right, which I have no problem with helping them, but I have all kinds of problems with
our beginning to spend more lottery money and still not get into those students that we promise when we put this in place, that we're going to help them. This is problematic. And I'm just saying from here, because it's one of the things that's been pointing out to us in SREB and other places that have ranked us is that we actually do not do a good job
with need-based scholarships. We're pretty much at the bottom. But those kids that are pretty much at the bottom too are not getting anything out of this. So I'd like to, I don't know. It may be a done deal, but I want to register that and have us think about when we say need, how do we figure out a way that people all over this state and I think about particularly the large counties where there are folks who just aren't getting a chance and I want to talk about later on doesn't have to be here
why are we choosing to address need this way as opposed to not ever getting back to those kids whose parents and everybody else they were putting money into this lottery every day and the thing we said we wouldn't do was Georgia it is the exact thing we're doing and I have a real problem with that all right does anybody else have a problem
or question a statement on that one if okay all right Dr. Markham
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
35:27
I heard what you said as far as the money and you said if it wasn't available
but does that correspond with what my comment was earlier that we're going to wait one year before we start this because there might be a little bit of a difference if you're just looking to use fund balances that may be parked in that trust account that we had set
Speaker 74
35:51
up i think that definitely needs to be parsed out it would be difficult for us to launch this program next year because we would have to upgrade you know the scholarship application process and we have a lot of most of our students are already applying at this point without the benefit of knowing this
Speaker 79
36:07
would be available for next year so realistically it will probably take us a couple of years to gear up to deliver this this option okay so that
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
36:16
so that goes along with what i'm thinking that as far as all scholarships that we're going to run it at least a year in arrears so in other words the revenue is coming in we know what was spent we know what was spent on the base academic scholarship amount we put that other money in there then workforce development comes out of it concurrent comes out of it and whatever is remaining at that point that's going to go
towards this new scholarship is that what we're
Speaker 74
36:43
saying well that depends on how this ends up being written i think that this the need-based portion of this would probably come before workforce challenge or concurrent because it would be attached to the academic challenge scholarship those other two are not academic challenge there are other scholarships created to come from lottery proceeds i think that's the way the pecking order of what gets paid is i think that's the way it's written now and who's going to determine how much that is
that's paid out with that that would be well we could either state that in in the statute or that could be a rule um you know there could be some kind of formula that we want to develop to determine what the the tiers would be in a given year based on what
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
37:31
was available okay i would always prefer it to be in legislation and i think we crafted some language before that said if it was not there that there'd be a maximum amount and then it would ratchet down uh may have some
issues about paying it before the workforce and the concurrent i don't know what the members are going to
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
37:54
say there but go ahead and throw that out there thank you ma'am thank you dr markham Um, when I was trying to figure out the impact of the 2.5 versus the 19, um, I asked higher ed and I got the demographics of that to see if I were just dreaming something or is that the way it really played out. And of course it really plays out that, uh, the students of color are the ones who are losing big, big time when it comes to the lottery scholarship.
um could you if assuming that what you're suggesting or implemented right here and now say today could you look back at the demographics of over the last five years and see who would have I would like to know that because that's all I think I can have the go by to look for the practice who would be eligible right here now today and give me the demographics on who yes so we can
Speaker 78
38:46
look back at who received the scholarship and who would have received an adjusted amount
Speaker 74
38:51
based on that. I can't tell you of those students who didn't receive it because we don't have that information. We only have the positive side. But we can definitely do that. I'd like to know that. Thank you very much. What else, Dr. Markham? A couple of other things. We would like to suggest that the FAFSA completion requirement be added for all of our state scholarships. I think that there's a bill under draft at this time to require that. It just allows us to stretch our state dollars a little further
when you require that the federal financial aid be applied for. We're one of the lower utilization states for accessing federal financial aid. We're around 54 percent of our graduating hospital students who actually complete the FAFSA. So part of our strategic goal for affordability for all students is to move that number closer to 80 percent, which is really the goal standard for FAFSA completion. So one component of that would be requiring students who enter in the universal application system to have applied for federal financial aid as well. So along with that,
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
40:01
do you, should we have a grant of something to help people learn how to fill it out? i'm i'm thinking that a lot of people i mean i know a lot of them don't
just because it's just they just don't know how or what to
Speaker 74
40:15
do we're partnering with uh department of elementary and secondary education on our planning for how to get this out so that we'll have more resources in high schools so that students that do not have guidance and and can't fill the form out on their own will have more resources for that so we're looking at every opportunity to leverage those
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
40:33
partnerships for that I would suggest and I hope we have um
we're creating our guidance based on having talked to folks who are having issues rather than you know I just assuming this is good guidance because what I think might be good guidance might not even come close to what those it's it's traumatic for most people trying to do it um so I hope I really encourage you to think very carefully but carefully about not what we think but let's talk to some parents and some students and find out what
kind of help they need because I think just doing it is the biggest
Speaker 74
41:08
problem. It is and you know luckily it's getting a bit easier so we're the federal the form has gotten quite a bit shorter so they've gone from you know several hundred questions now they're doing some data matches so that you don't have to enter your family income so it's getting easier to do the the FAFSA but but certainly your point is well taken we need we need resources on the ground to assist students and families in completing that application and and and i hope
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
41:33
a part of our suggestion will be too because a lot of students won't have the ability to do this from home that
our schools will be open just like we have college night we should have fast night or something or whatever the case may be um because i've seen this this the process and and it's
not pretty yeah okay what else dr markham
Speaker 72
41:54
um we we have some interest um because of the um the popularity of our workforce challenge
Speaker 74
42:00
program but also the narrowness of its scope to expand that program to allow for additional career clusters and programs of study so students who would be
eligible to participate giving them greater opportunity to access the scholarship so we would like to expand the lane on that one as well okay all right and then finally I believe I've mentioned this before in other committee meetings but we are planning to replace and upgrade our universal application system I'm happy to tell you that since this report was created for you we've gotten better cost estimates on that and instead of the three to four million dollar range we're looking at closer to one and a half so that's the good news we've added five scholarships
over the last 10 years and you know it's 10 15 year technology and it's just time to to make some upgrades to that system so we're going to do most of the work internally with our staff and then also you know need some additional softwares and hardwares to to upgrade that system okay any questions anybody uh
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
43:07
if there are no further questions i think that's the last is that the last item for you
that is all it is well okay that's I've got number 53 up here
um I've got 53 first of that so needs okay well I'll get to you next and 53 was up here first okay Nikki did you did you like
did you you didn't ask I just lit you up for no reason okay okay
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified
43:34
Senator Eads I thank you Madam Chair I was just curious about on the eligibility for this year of students when we've got a lot of students around the state that haven't had opportunity to take the ACT because of COVID reasons? How will that be handled in this calendar year coming up
Speaker 74
43:48
in academic year? We've made some extensions on some deadlines for some of the scholarships that require ACT, particularly the Governor's Distinguished Scholarship. We've pushed that deadline to allow for another ACT administration to take place. And we've worked with ACT to identify testing opportunities and testing locations for those students so we think that students will have adequate opportunity to take the ACT and then I think it's also important to point out that we are super scoring all of the all the scholarships for ACT not governor's
distinguished but for challenge they can super score so that it's a timely change to that scholarship okay okay thank
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
44:30
you thank you madam chair all right you're welcome um
Dr. Markham and Mr. Fuller, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, whichever one works for you, and hope to see you soon, early 2021. Yes.
Oh, I thought some of it. Members, that item E,
that was actually item C3. That was just a little bit out of place, so we really don't have an item E. All right. So if there is nothing else for the good of the order, we will stand adjourned. Thank you very much. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas to all of you. Oh, I'm told by our staff that we need to approve the report. So I need a motion to approve the report. That was C3. Motion to approve the report. Is there a second? All those in favor, aye. The motion, the report is approved. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Stephanie. There we go. I don't know about a Frankenstein. See, that says spam to me. You
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by Co-Chairs
C. Review of the Office of Arkansas Lottery Report [Exhibits C1-C3] - Mr. Eric Hagler, Director, Department of Finance and Administration (DF&A) Office of Arkansas Lottery (OAL)
D. Arkansas Department of Higher Education (ADHE) Recommendations for the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship Program (A.C.A. § 6-85-219(b)) [Exhibit D] - Dr. Maria Markham, Director, ADHE - Mr. Nick Fuller, Deputy Director, ADHE
E. Approval of the ALC Lottery Oversight Subcommittee Draft Annual Report (A.C.A. § 23-115-1101(b))
F. Other Business
G. Adjournment
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — ALC-LOTTERY OVERSIGHT SUBCOMMITTEE, Dec 17, 2020 | Agenda | 1 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit C1-OAL_LOC_Report_November 2020 | Exhibit | 6 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit C2- November 2020 ALC LOS Disclosure Reports | Exhibit | 20 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit D-ALC Lottery letter | Exhibit | 2 | Official source ↗ |
| Exhibit E- ALC Lottery Annual Report (December 18 2020) | Exhibit | 1 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Joyce Elliott
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 18
Speaker 19
Speaker 22
Speaker 12
Speaker 26
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
Speaker 39
Speaker 43
Senator Jimmy Hickey, Jr
Unverified
Speaker 62
Speaker 69
Speaker 46
Speaker 72
Speaker 74
Speaker 81
Speaker 79
Speaker 78
Senator Lance Eads
Unverified