Amendment Maintains Scholarship Rigor

The State Senate has amended a bill that would change the curriculum requirements in the Hathaway College Scholarship Program.

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In changing House Bill 13 on Wednesday, Senators rebuffed concerns by some that a foreign language requirement for the higher Hathaway tiers burdens small schools.

Bill Schilling with the Wyoming Business Alliance says his organization supports the more rigorous requirements.

"The reality is that so many of our high school graduates that go off to college just are just not prepared for the next step in terms of academic activity. That is particularly the case at the lower levels of the scholarship component in the Hathaway."

Schilling suggests that around 40 to 45 percent of lower tier students lose their scholarship.

In the house-passed version of the bill, high school students would be allowed to substitute career-vocational education or fine and performing arts courses for foreign language in all four scholarship levels.

Joe Feiler is a Tech Instructor at Kelly Walsh High School. He supported the House version of the bill. He says students need to be taking classes relevant to their career paths.

"If a student believes that a foreign language is in their best interest in their career then they need to be on that career path, but for some students that's just not a good choice.  And that's what it is, it's about choice."

The Senate amendment maintains the language requirement for the top two scholarship tiers, but drops it for lower level recipients.

The bill faces two more votes in the Senate.