State panel seeks marketing plan

State lawmakers on Thursday asked the Department of Higher Education to develop a budget to market the department’s scholarship and grant programs, other than those financed by the state lottery.

During their hearing on the department’s budget request for the next two years, the Legislative Council and Joint Budget Committee approved a motion by Sen. Will Bond, D-Little Rock, asking the department to present a marketing budget for the scholarship and grant programs, including for Arkansas Future Grants.

The action came after Sen. Linda Chesterfield, D-Little Rock, initially questioned why the department only spent about $452,000 out of a $9 million budget on grants for students through the Arkansas Future Grant program in 2018. The program authorized by the Legislature in 2017 is aimed at helping students pursuing associate degrees and certificates in high-demand fields.

In fiscal 2018, the department distributed about $27.7 million in scholarship and grant programs, including $17 million for the Governor’s Distinguished Scholarships and about $5.4 million in health education grants and loans, according to state records.

In addition, the department distributed about $92 million in Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarships in 2018. Those are paid for by the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.

Higher Education Director

Maria Markham said the department “had a late roll out” of the Arkansas Futures Grant program after the law authorizing it cleared the Legislature late in the regular session.

“The applications didn’t go out until July, so we had very low participation rate in the first fall semester because of that late roll out,” she said. “Most of the students had already applied for all their scholarships and aid. We have tripled the application for this academic year for that program. We expect those expenditures to increase.”

The grant applies to students enrolled in science, technology and math areas or regional high demand areas of study and will cover tuition and fees for qualifying certificate and associate degree programs at Arkansas public institutions, according to the department’s website.

The department had 5,700 applications for the program in the 2017-18 school year and 431 of those students were awarded an average grant of $873, Alisha Lewis, a spokesman for the department, said afterward.

The department received 12,000 applications for the program in the 2018-19 school year and about 1,300 have been offered grants. Schools haven’t finalized rosters yet to determine how much has been spent this semester, Lewis said.

The students that have been paid received an average of about $1,200, she said.

During Wednesday’s budget hearing, Bond, a senator from Little Rock, asked Markham whether the department plans to let people know about the program in the future.

“We have increased our communications substantially,” Markham said. “We have been working with the Department of Education to push information to our public schools to get that word out. We also are expanding the program opportunities at the institutions and they have been very important to getting that word out as well because those program lists are specific by institution, so they are doing a lot of their own marketing to let students know that their programs are covered.”

Bond pressed Markham about whether the department has a specific plan to let people know this program is available to anyone.

Markham replied, “We have a plan. However, I would posit that we don’t have a budget so everything we do at the department to market our program offerings we basically do for free,” she said. “I have an employee who is charged with a zero budget to communicate our message. Our best option at this point is to try to work through our partners,” including the Department of Education and Department of Career Education, she said.

“We are able to piggyback on some of the marketing programs that the lottery funds for driving students to our applications in general, so we do have a plan. We have a vision. We would enjoy the opportunity to use a little more resources to provide … some paid marketing,” Markham said.

“I think ignoring funding letting Arkansans know about these opportunities falls … to the Legislature, and we need to do a better job,” Bond said.

Rep. Charlotte Douglas, R-Alma, asked Markham whether some of the lottery’s advertising should be shifted to the Department of Higher Education, “so you can advertise for the programs that you are administering.”

Markham said the lottery isn’t allowed to use its money to advertise non-lottery programs.

“All the marketing dollars that we had in higher ed, prior to the lottery coming on line [in 2009], was given to the lottery for those marketing efforts, so we zeroed our marketing budget. We don’t have one. But we do take advantage of some of the marketing for the lottery. They promote higher ed and our scholarships in general through their marketing,” she said.

Afterward, Arkansas Scholarship Lottery Director Bishop Woosley said the lottery spent roughly $600,000 of its $6.5 million advertising budget on scholarships in 2018.

The Arkansas Futures Grant “is not funded by the lottery, but it can be stacked with a lottery-funded Academic Challenge Scholarship and others,” he said in a written statement. “The Workforce Challenge Scholarship IS funded by the lottery, and we do promote that information.”

The 2017 Legislature created the Workforce Challenge Scholarship program to provide aid of up to $800 a year for students enrolled in certificate and associate degree programs for high demand occupations in information technology, health care and industrial manufacturing.

The scholarship is available for the first time this school year.