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The state of Arkansas is expected to send $150 million in scholarships and other awards to students in higher education during the 2025-26 academic year, an increase of $22.6 million.
In November, Arkansas voters approved an expansion of the state’s lottery-funded scholarships beyond four-year institutions of higher learning, making them available to technical and vocational school students, too. This voter-fueled change is codified in ACCESS, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ higher education bill that acronymizes acceleration, common sense, cost, eligibility, scholarships and standardization.
Starting this fall, the Workforce Challenge Scholarship — an award for students training in high-demand professions like health care and information technology — will be funded with an additional $9 million annually.
ACCESS doubles the first-year Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship to $2,000 for eligible students at two- and four-year institutions, an increase expected to cost $8.7 million next year. It also establishes the Arkansas Heroes Scholarship Act for family members of fallen public servants and a new scholarship for disabled students.
Sanders signed ACCESS into law approximately one month after she announced it. As with her Arkansas LEARNS Act of 2023 that focused on K-12 education, Arkansas ACCESS is a political grab bag, combining the voter-approved scholarship dollars with limitations on free speech, all in one chunk.
“The message behind ACCESS is very simple: For far too long we’ve told our young people that the only way to be successful is to get a four-year college degree right out of high school,” Sanders said before signing the legislation on March 18. “ACCESS will help end that myth. Education has on ramps and off ramps, and we need to make sure that those are easier to get to, and that starts with this legislation.”
Generally speaking, data shows that income levels rise with educational attainment, although salary clearly isn’t the only measure of success.
The Arkansas Department of Education’s Division of Higher Education oversees a number of awards, but only four scholarships are paid for by the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery established in 2009 to channel revenue from Powerball, Mega Millions, scratch-off tickets and other lottery sweepstakes toward higher education.
Over the last 14 years, the program sent more than $1.4 billion of the $7.5 billion in lottery sales to Arkansas students.
For the 2025-2026 school year, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery is on track to fund $115.3 million in educational awards, a figure we calculated based on annual average distributions since 2009 and the projected increase under ACCESS. The state is expected to distribute another $34 million funded with non-lottery revenue.
Director Sharon Strong, whom Sanders appointed to lead the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery in July, said one of her first questions upon assuming her new role was how to increase the awards given to first-year higher education students.
Strong is “intimately familiar with the cost of college these days,” she said, since one of her three children is in college now. The freshman scholarship amount is a critical element in deciding if one should take the leap to further their education, she said.
“I’m thrilled that we’re able to increase it,” she said, referring to the doubled first-year award for the Arkansas Challenge Scholarship. “It’s probably not even — $2,000 may not be really enough for some people, but I’m thrilled that we’re going in the right direction.”
The Academic Challenge Scholarship is the program’s most prominent award, with an average of 30,000 annual recipients since it was established. According to data from the Department of Finance and Administration, recipients peaked about a decade ago with more than 35,000 students, and the number has generally decreased since.
The $8.7 million annual increase to pay for the Academic Challenge Scholarship amount is already in hand, Strong said. In recent years, an average annual excess of $30 million has been stored in the program’s net proceeds fund, which currently has a balance of $322 million.
The funding structure for scholarships in subsequent years — as established in Act 1105 of 2015 — were unchanged in ACCESS. Under state law, students receive $4,000 for their sophomore and junior credit hours, and $5,000 for their senior credit hours.
More of the costs for concurrent credits — college-level hours high school students can earn toward undergraduate degrees — will be covered under ACCESS.
Previously, high school students could get $125 from the state per course for a maximum of two concurrent courses each semester. The new award allows $65 per concurrent credit course hour, up to $2,000 per semester. Covering these costs is expected to run the state $15.5 annually.
Concurrent credit also factors into another scholarship, the Governor’s Scholars Program that awards students $5,000 for graduating with a diploma of distinction or earning enough college credits in high school that they leapfrog past their first few college semesters.
“You could potentially do enough concurrent credit while you’re in high school [that] by the time you graduate high school, you’ve got an associate degree,” Strong said.
The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery will allocate an additional $5 million annually for these awards.
ACCESS allocates an estimated additional $9 million annually to the Workforce Challenge Scholarship for vocational and technical students, in accordance with the wishes of nearly 90% of Arkansas voters in the 2024 general election.
Vocational and technical students can now receive a maximum of $3,000 each academic year.
“I’m thrilled for the [Arkansas Scholarship] Lottery to have such an important role in increasing the amount of scholarships to our students, whether that be through a traditional two-or-four-year college, or through a vocational or technical institute,” Strong said. “The end goal here is to help make it easier for people to grow in their education and to be able to get better paying jobs in the state, and also keep people in the state.”
Before Sanders signed ACCESS into law, she told a crowd of state business leaders that the legislation’s changes to scholarships would “benefit every company and business in our state.”
ACCESS also introduces the Governor’s Higher Education Transition Scholarship Program for students with disabilities and the Arkansas Heroes Scholarship for Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipients.
Both programs are ACCESS originals. A spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Education said the state is allocating $2 million for the Higher Education Transition Scholarship and $5.5 million for the Heroes Scholarship.
The scholarship to assist students with disabilities is only outlined in ACCESS, and the legislation states the Division of Higher Education may promulgate rules to work out the details, including application forms and deadlines.
The maximum award a student can earn per semester is $2,500.
The Arkansas Heroes Scholarship Act is meant to honor the “heroic efforts” of Arkansans and their families. Eligible recipients will receive a year-long scholarship that is renewable for up to three additional years. The scholarship consolidates two existing awards, the Military Dependents and the Law Enforcement Officer’s Dependents scholarships.
The maximum amount for the heroes scholarship would include tuition, room and board and mandatory fees at a state-supported institution.
“There isn’t a set dollar amount, but the amount is capped at the highest cost at a public institution,” ADE provided in a statement. “The highest amount from the current year would have been $11,914.”
The legislation describes an “Arkansas hero” as an official who suffered a fatal injury, wound, or became permanently and totally disabled as the result of injuries that occurred during their employment in a specified profession, including a law enforcement officer, firefighter, state parks employee or disabled veteran.
A teacher can also be considered a hero if they experienced the life-altering event “due to an act of violence at a public school or open-enrollment charter school in this state,” according to ACCESS.
Children of the specified officials can be eligible for the scholarship if they meet set requirements. For example, biological children must have been born or be in utero when the heroic act occurred; an adopted child must have been fully adopted or in the process of being adopted by the hero when the death or injury occurred.
A child can no longer receive the award if they’re 26 years old on or before the first day of the semester; a spouse cannot receive benefits if they remarry.
Though the hero scholarship will be primarily funded through the state’s Higher Education Grants Fund Account, ACCESS states that the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery’s net proceeds will fund the scholarships if the number of qualified scholarship applicants exceeds the amount of available state appropriations.
In a time when critical voices are increasingly silenced, the Arkansas Times stands as a beacon of truth, tirelessly defending the fundamental rights and freedoms within our community. With Arkansas at the epicenter of a sweeping culture war affecting our libraries, schools, and public discourse, our mission to deliver unflinching journalism has never been more vital. We’re here to “slay dragons” and hold power accountable, but we can’t do it alone. By contributing today, you ensure that independent journalism not only survives but thrives in Arkansas. Together, we can make a difference — join the fight.
Mary Hennigan is a Little Rock city reporter for the Arkansas Times. She’s covered housing issues, public safety, city development and local government in Arkansas. More by Mary Hennigan
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