UPDATE: Members of the House of Representatives approved changing the requirements for home-schooled students to receive the Opportunity Scholarship at the state's public universities. The House of Representatives reconsidered House Bill 1128 Thursday afternoon after the bill failed to receive a majority of votes Wednesday. The now approved bill was amended before being passed. Home-schooled students are now required to receive a 26 on the ACT to receive the Opportunity scholarship. Students enrolled at regular high schools are still required to take a specific set of courses and receive a 24, or get a 28 on the test if the course work is not taken. Prior to the amendment, the bill sought to change the home-school test requirement to 24.
PREVIOUS: Discussion on whether home-schooled students have a level playing field when obtaining the state’s Opportunity Scholarship at public universities heated up the House floor Wednesday afternoon. Debate lasted for more than 30 minutes and ended in a dead-even tie with 35 in favor and 35 against House Bill 1128. Under current law, home-schooled students must score a 28 on the ACT because they don’t take the required coursework as provided in public schools. The proposed legislation would change that requirement to 24. Representative Paula Hawks says she changed her mind during discussion after supporting the bill in committee.
“The original intent of this scholarship program was to reward those students who chose to engage in a rigorous course of study. If we want to maintain the integrity of this scholarship program, we need to maintain those high standards. As has been pointed out by several speakers already, home schooling is a choice. If the choice is that they’d like to be able to be eligible for this scholarship at a lower ACT score, then their choice is to attend a public school setting. I think that we need to maintain those standards, and maintain the level playing field that we do have in place with the coursework and ACT scores,” Hawks says.
Students enrolled in public schools must obtain a 24 on the test and take required coursework, or they too are required to get a 28 to be eligible for the scholarship. The measure failed without a majority vote.