AFHE pleased to announce SB 1280 signed by Governor Brewer!

April 30, 2010

The 2010 Arizona legislative session is coming to an end in the last part of April this year.  AFHE began work in January and was successful in passing SB 1280 which amends A.R.S. 15-1646.  This bill deals with reporting on merit scholarship eligibility for homeschooled students by our three state universities, ASU, NAU, and U of A. 

A bit of background
A.R.S. 15-1646 became law in 1999, known as “Bethany’s Law” after Bethany Lewis, a homeschooled student, who wrote the bill for her YMCA Youth and Government program.  Bethany’s Law was designed to assure “fair and equitable” access to merit-based tuition waivers and scholarships that were available to public, charter, private and home school in-state residents at our three universities.

In 2005, the Arizona Board of Regents renamed what had been called the Regent’s Scholarship (a renewable tuition waiver awarded to high-performing students) to the Regent’s High Honors Endorsement Scholarship (RHHE).  Whereas formerly, a homeschooled student could be considered for this tuition waiver scholarship by scoring at the 95th percentile on either the SAT or the ACT, after 2005 eligibility depended upon “exceeding”  on all three sections of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Success high-stakes graduation test (AIMS) combined with other measures such as grades in 16 core courses, a minimum GPA of 3.5 or a 5% top class rank, and evidence of AP and IB coursework.  This shift in measuring eliminated homeschoolers from being eligible for the tuition waiver scholarship, according to Arizona Department of Education policy, despite being out of compliance with 15-1646.  In the spring of 2009, AFHE had some meetings with representatives from the three state universities, the Board of Regents, and the Arizona Department of Education to discuss this inequity as well as confusion over administration of other university-specific merit scholarships. 

One result of that meeting, though not directly communicated to AFHE afterward, was that the Arizona Department of Education, who administers the RHHE tuition waiver scholarship on behalf of the Arizona Board of Regents, agreed to evaluate homeschoolers so long as they took the AIMS test.  Since this was only begun for this 2010 year, it remains unclear whether or how factors such as the grades in 16 core courses, GPA, lack of class rank and AP or IB classes will be evaluated.  We had hoped to include a return to a purely SAT/ACT standard of evaluation for this tuition waiver as part of SB 1280 but were unsuccessful. 

We will be evaluating whether we can pursue legislation next year to address this problem.  For now, we can only tell Arizona homeschooling parents to consult with the Arizona Department of Education to learn which year their high school student should take the AIMS test in order to be considered for the RHHE tuition waiver.  AFHE has never encouraged that homeschoolers take the AIMS test because it is not required by law pursuant to A.R.S. 15-745.  However, until such time as the law can be amended, students who want to compete for a RHHE tuition waiver scholarship have no other choice.

This background information sets the stage for why SB 1280 will help Arizona parents.  In addition to the RHHE tuition waiver scholarship, each state university also offers other university-specific merit scholarships.  At ASU these are known as the President’s, Provost’s, and Dean’s scholarships.  At NAU they are called the President’s, Dean’s, and Merit, and at U of A they are called the Wildcat Excellence Award at differing monetary levels.  Multiple parents contacted AFHE in the fall of 2009 and reported that they were confused regarding the criteria for various scholarships and how they should help their students apply for these scholarships. Especially at ASU, the parents said that different people they talked to at the university gave different answers to their questions and that there was no clear, searchable, web-based place where they could get the answers they sought.

One parent, Derek Davis of Ahwatukee, did a substantial amount of research on merit scholarships for the state schools in Arizona because his daughter wished to attend ASU and he had a son waiting in the wings who also hoped to attend ASU.  He brought the results of all this research to AFHE’s attention.  We learned that the reporting requirements were not spelled out in sufficient detail to result in data to adequately evaluate whether homeschooled students were being treated “fair and equitably” under A.R.S. 15-1646. 

SB 1280 expands the reporting requirements and amends A.R.S. 15-1646 by requiring that the 3 universities annually report statistics reflecting the prior academic year:

a) The total number and dollar amount of awards and total number of applicants.

b) The total number and dollar amount of awards and total number of applicants by type of student (i.e. public, charter, private or home school).

c) The specific criteria used to award each scholarship, including average and range of SAT and ACT scores.

d) The number of newly awarded scholarships and the number of renewed scholarships.

The bill also requires that students be notified whether they have been awarded scholarships in a timely manner, without regard to whether they are from public, charter, private or home schools.

Senator John Huppenthal sponsored and is directly responsible for helping AFHE pass this bill into law.  He helped at multiple points, including holding stakeholder meetings, hearing this bill in his Senate Education committee, securing a floor amendment in the Senate, and coming to the House to testify in committee in support of the bill.  AFHE, and all Arizona homeschooling families, are indebted to Sen. Huppenthal for his commitment to passing SB 1280 into law!  We are also indebted to Rep. Rich Crandall who heard this bill in his House Education committee and helped it to favorably pass.  And we cannot forget to thank Governor Brewer for signing SB 1280 into law and her Education Policy Assistant Karla Phillips for providing research and support!  One other note of thanks must go out to the Center for Arizona Policy’s Cathi Herrod, Deborah Sheasby, and Brett Urig who helped AFHE at many, many points along the way to guide this bill into law.

It is our hope that SB 1280 adds to the tools available to homeschooling parents as they seek collegiate opportunities for their students.  Our belief is that regardless of how we bring our students to the point of higher education, the playing field should be “fair and equitable” as the law states, for homeschooled students to be considered for merit scholarships commensurate with their proven academic abilities and readiness.  This is one arena where clear reports with useful data are needed and we believe that SB 1280’s amendment to A.R.S. 15-1646 is a step in the right direction.

Carol Shippy, AFHE Legislative Liaison