1817-S AMH WILC LUCE 018
SHB 1817 - H AMD 222
By Representative Wilcox
WITHDRAWN 03/13/2013
On page 2, after line 21, insert the following:
"Sec.3. RCW 28B.145.030 and 2011 1st sp.s. c 13 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) The program administrator, under contract with the *board, shall staff the opportunity scholarship board and shall have the duties and responsibilities provided in this chapter, including but not limited to publicizing the program, selecting participants for the opportunity scholarship award, distributing opportunity scholarship awards, and achieving the maximum possible rate of return on investment of the accounts in subsection (2) of this section, while ensuring transparency in the investment decisions and processes. Duties, exercised jointly with the opportunity scholarship board, include soliciting funds and setting annual fund-raising goals. The program administrator shall be paid an administrative fee as determined by the opportunity scholarship board.
(2) With respect to the opportunity scholarship program, the program administrator shall:
(a) Establish and manage two separate accounts into which to receive grants and contributions from private sources as well as state matching funds, and from which to disburse scholarship funds to participants;
(b) Solicit and accept grants and contributions from private sources, via direct payment, pledge agreement, or escrow account, of private sources for deposit into one or both of the two accounts created in this subsection (2)(b) in accordance with this subsection (2)(b):
(i) The "scholarship account," whose principal may be invaded, and from which scholarships must be disbursed beginning no later than December 1, 2011, if, by that date, state matching funds in the amount of five million dollars or more have been received. Thereafter, scholarships shall be disbursed on an annual basis beginning no later than May 1, 2012, and every May 1st thereafter. During the 2013-2015 biennium, $5,760,000 of the state funds in the scholarship account shall be used for state need grant awards;
(ii) The "endowment account," from which scholarship moneys may be disbursed from earnings only in years when:
(A) The state match has been made into both the scholarship and the endowment account;
(B) The state appropriations for the state need grant under RCW 28B.92.010 meet or exceed state appropriations for the state need grant made in the 2011-2013 biennium, adjusted for inflation, and eligibility for state need grant recipients is at least seventy percent of state median family income; and
(C) The state has demonstrated progress toward the goal of total per-student funding levels, from state appropriations plus tuition and fees, of at least the sixtieth percentile of total per-student funding at similar public institutions of higher education in the global challenge states, as defined, measured, and reported in RCW 28B.15.068. In any year in which the office of financial management reports that the state has not made progress toward this goal, no new scholarships may be awarded. In any year in which the office of financial management reports that the percentile of total per-student funding is less than the sixtieth percentile and at least five percent less than the prior year, pledges of future grants and contributions may, at the request of the donor, be released and grants and contributions already received refunded to the extent that opportunity scholarship awards already made can be fulfilled from the funds remaining in the endowment account; and
(iii) An amount equal to at least fifty percent of all grants and contributions must be deposited into the scholarship account until such time as twenty million dollars have been deposited into the account, after which time the private donors may designate whether their contributions must be deposited to the scholarship or the endowment account. The opportunity scholarship board and the program administrator must work to maximize private sector contributions to both the scholarship account and the endowment account, to maintain a robust scholarship program while simultaneously building the endowment, and to determine the division between the two accounts in the case of undesignated grants and contributions, taking into account the need for a long‑term funding mechanism and the short‑term needs of families and students in Washington. The first five million dollars in state match, as provided in RCW 28B.145.040, shall be deposited into the scholarship account and thereafter the state match shall be deposited into the two accounts in equal proportion to the private funds deposited in each account;
(c) Provide proof of receipt of grants and contributions from private sources to the *board, identifying the amounts received by name of private source and date, and whether the amounts received were deposited into the scholarship or the endowment account;
(d) In consultation with the *higher education coordinating board and the state board for community and technical colleges, make an assessment of the reasonable annual eligible expenses associated with eligible education programs identified by the opportunity scholarship board;
(e) Determine the dollar difference between tuition fees charged by institutions of higher education in the 2008-09 academic year and the academic year for which an opportunity scholarship is being distributed;
(f) Develop and implement an application, selection, and notification process for awarding opportunity scholarships;
(g) Determine the annual amount of the opportunity scholarship for each selected participant. The annual amount shall be at least one thousand dollars or the amount determined under (e) of this subsection, but may be increased on an income-based, sliding scale basis up to the amount necessary to cover all reasonable annual eligible expenses as assessed pursuant to (d) of this subsection, or to encourage participation in baccalaureate degree programs identified by the opportunity scholarship board;
(h) Distribute scholarship funds to selected participants. Once awarded, and to the extent funds are available for distribution, an opportunity scholarship shall be automatically renewed until the participant withdraws from or is no longer attending the program, completes the program, or has taken the credit or clock hour equivalent of one hundred twenty-five percent of the published length of time of the participant's program, whichever occurs first, and as long as the participant annually submits documentation of filing both a free application for federal student aid and for available federal education tax credits, including but not limited to the American opportunity tax credit; and
(i) Notify institutions of scholarship recipients who will attend their institutions and inform them of the terms of the students' eligibility.
(3) With respect to the opportunity expansion program, the program administrator shall:
(a) Assist the opportunity scholarship board in developing and implementing an application, selection, and notification process for making opportunity expansion awards; and
(b) Solicit and accept grants and contributions from private sources for opportunity expansion awards."
Correct the title.
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EFFECT: Requires $5,760,000 to be spend from the opportunity scholarship program scholarship account for state need grant awards to cover the potential costs of funding newly eligible students with deferred action for childhood arrival status.
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