The Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship, funded primarily through proceeds from the Arkansas Lottery, largely benefits white students from relatively wealthy families. Over the last five years of available data, from those awarded in the 2017-2018 school year to the 2021-2022 academic year, at least 74% of those receiving the scholarship each year have been white and with an average family income of $103,000 or greater. Arkansas’s median household income is $52,000.
Meanwhile, the number of Black students both applying for and receiving the scholarship has significantly declined in recent years, in both real numbers and as a percentage of scholarships awarded. From 2017-2018 to 2021-22, the number of applications from and awards to Black students declined 44%. During each year of that period, Black students have made up no more than 10% of scholarship recipients; in 2021-22 they represented only 8%. Black people make up 16% of Arkansas’s population. The average parent income of Black students who’ve been awarded the scholarship has hovered just above the state median income. In 2021-2022 it was $55,000.
The Arkansas Division of Higher Education compiled information about the Academic Challenge Scholarship at the request of the Arkansas Times. The data suggests a continuation of a trend Max Brantley noted back in 2016.
Our interest in the data was spurred by a change in law sponsored by Sen. Jimmy Hickey (R-Texarkana) and passed in 2015 that replaced the standard for a lottery scholarship of either an ACT score of 19 or a 2.5 grade point average with a 19 ACT score as the sole qualification. The scholarship was also reduced from $2,000 to $1,000 for first-year students, but increased from $3,000 to $4,000 for the second year. Students must maintain a 2.5 GPA in college and earn a certain number of credit hours each year to maintain the scholarship.
The idea was to attract more qualified students and reward those who succeeded in college in the first year, and to cope with lottery revenue not keeping up with scholarship demand. Critics worried that the change would harm poorer students, particularly minorities, and the lower first-year award would make it harder for students to afford college to start with, even if they qualified. Because household income is the strongest indicator for success on standardized tests, Black students have historically underperformed.
The Division of Higher Education data bear those concerns out. The division also provided information about students who received scholarship awards in 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. In both those classes, Black students were significantly less likely to retain their scholarships in their second, third and fourth years than white students.

Maria Markham, director of the Division of High Education, last year floated the idea of creating a sliding scale for the scholarship program that would allow lower-income students the opportunity to receive more money, the Arkansas Advocate reported. Perhaps a bill to that end will be forthcoming in this General Assembly.
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