Abstract:
State lottery scholarships have become a common tool for promoting increased access to college enrollment. To research potential relationships between these scholarships and postsecondary enrollment, this case study examined eligibility requirements, distribution equity, student perceptions of scholarship sufficiency, policy modifications, and challenges to program sustainability for Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky in which lottery scholarship program histories, implementations, and successes and failures were evaluated on a state-by-state basis in an effort to address the research question of whether lottery scholarships help increase student enrollment at public institutions of higher education.
After examination of evidence and outcomes, the researcher identified several potential issues associated with lottery-funded scholarships and their goal of increasing enrollment at public institutions of higher education in Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky, due to inequitable distribution of awards, failure to index tuition increases, low retention rates of lottery scholarships, and the effects of mercurial legislative changes. Recommended solutions to address these issues included legislative changes geared toward need-based aid, policies separating and safeguarding earmarked lottery revenues for scholarships, and changing eligibility requirements.
Because of the potentially expanding gaps between income and racial groups who receive lottery scholarships, future research should concentrate on the question of whether lottery scholarship programs are accomplishing their policy goals of increasing access to postsecondary education and improving education outcomes across the broad spectrum of students.