With a stroke of her pen on Tuesday, Pulaski Tech student Kendra Bean, 19, of Little Rock became the symbolic 77,468th signature needed to qualify Lieut. Gov. Bill Halter’s scholarship lottery for the November ballot.
The deadline for filing signatures is July 7, and Halter’s group, Hope for Arkansas, expects to continue gathering signatures until a total of 100,000 have been collected.
Proceeds from the lottery would go toward college scholarships, although lottery operators will collect a hefty fee for their services.
“I am honored to put pen to paper and to offer my name as the symbolic signature needed to qualify this much needed scholarship lottery for the November ballot,” remarked Bean.
“I am thankful that I am able to obtain an Arkansas college education and I am pleased to support this scholarship lottery because I believe it will open new doors of opportunity for more Arkansans to receive a higher education.”
“We are one step closer to providing hundreds of millions of dollars in new college scholarships and one step closer to helping more Arkansans realize a better future with more opportunities,” said Halter.
“For too long, Arkansans have been driving across state lines to subsidize the education of other states’ students by playing their lottery. Now, Arkansans will have the chance to have their own scholarship lottery to help our own people.”
“Higher education has never been more important or more expensive,” said Halter. “Arkansas deserves to have its own scholarship lottery to help more Arkansans reach for better opportunities.”
Halter brought his lottery campaign last week to the Cabot Kiwanis Club, and highlighted Arkansas’ rank on the nationwide poverty scale. He says a lottery is the only way to improve educational opportunities.
“Arkansas has a very significant problem,” Halter said before Kiwanis Club members, noting the state is 49th in per capita income, inspiring the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi.”
“There’s nothing in the water, nothing in the genetic makeup of Arkansans that says we have to be 49th,” he said. “Look at what other states have done,” Halter said. “If it works, copy it.”
Halter thinks financing college for Arkansans who are “hard-pressed” to afford an education will send more qualified, well-trained employees into the workforce, increasing income.
