By Carrie Haderlie
Wyoming Tribune Eagle
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

CHEYENNE — A bill to increase Hathaway Scholarship award amounts for the first time in a decade has passed both chambers of the Wyoming Legislature.

The House of Representatives voted 59-0 on third reading Wednesday to approve Senate File 47, “Increase of Hathaway scholarship awards.” On second reading, the House briefly added even more funding to the program than the Senate, but amended the amounts back down on third reading.

Rep. Steve Harshman, R-Casper, proposed a second-reading amendment Tuesday that would have increased the scholarship award amounts such that the Hathaway Honors Scholarship would cover 100% of 2026 University of Wyoming tuition, 75% of UW tuition under the Performance Scholarship and 50% under the Opportunity Scholarship. The change was also approved in an amendment to the House budget bill, Harshman said.

“We fell off (funding the Hathaway) over time, and we are hitting a reset,” Harshman said.

Harshman’s amendment was approved on Tuesday, but on third reading, Rep. Jayme Lien, R-Casper, urged the body to amend the numbers back down to what they were when SF 47 came to the House from the Senate. Her amendment passed in a 34-23 vote.

“In the name of protecting future generations, I just wanted to have a conversation with you about what it means to increase our Hathaway Scholarship” to the levels recommended by Harshman, Lien said.

The JAC proposed an increase of 30% to the scholarship award amount, the Joint Education Committee proposed an increase of 40.5% and Harshman’s amendment, she said, set forth an increase of 60.7%.

Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, said Lien’s amendment to adjust the numbers back down showed “fiscal responsibility.” 

Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, said he agreed.

“It has been a long time since we raised the Hathaway Scholarship amount, but I think we should consider a stepped approach … and in one or two years, revisit it,” Heiner said.

Harshman said that setting a percentage, as his second-reading amendment sought to do, would better guide future generations, rather than a dollar amount.

“After we are all gone, they will be able to say, here’s that marker, the University of Wyoming Honors Scholarship is 100% (of the cost of tuition),” he said.

On Tuesday, Rep. McKay Erickson, R-Afton, said that because the cost of going to post-secondary school has increased so much while Hathaway funding stayed stagnant, “the Hathaway Scholarship, in particular, is not very attractive” anymore.

The Joint Education Committee sought to change that during the interim, he said.

“We’re doing everything we can to make Wyoming schools more popular and more attractive to keep our kids here, and that was the pure intent of it,” he said.

On Wednesday, Erickson said he opposed Lien’s third-reading amendment and supported Harshman’s idea. During Joint Education Committee meetings in the interim, Erickson said the committee talked a lot about how much money the state had, and began by considering the increase proposed by Harshman.

“That’s where the committee started, and we went a little more conservative,” Erickson said. “I would very much encourage you to trust what we have in our funds. The amount is very doable.”

In 2007, the Hathway Honors Scholarship covered 91% of tuition for UW students, Mike Smith, vice president for governmental affairs and community engagement at the University of Wyoming, has said. Without the increases under consideration, the same scholarship covers about 40% of UW tuition today. At Wyoming’s community colleges, the Honors Scholarship provided more than 100% of the cost tuition in 2007, and currently it provides around 75% of community college tuition.

Under SF 47, the Hathaway Opportunity Scholarship, which is awarded to students with a minimum cumulative high school GPA of 2.50 and ACT score of 19, would increase from the current award of $840 to $1,180 per 12-credit semester.

The Hathaway Performance Scholarship, which is awarded to students with a minimum cumulative high school GPA of 3.0 and ACT of 21, would increase from $1,260 to $1,770 for each 12-credit hour semester.

The Hathaway Honors Scholarship, which is awarded to students with a minimum cumulative high school GPA of 3.50 and ACT of 25, would increase from $1,680 to $2,360 for each 12-credit hour semester.

The Hathaway Provisional Opportunity Scholarship, awarded to students to pursue a certificate or degree with a minimum cumulative high school GPA of 2.50 and ACT of 17, would increase from $840 to $1,180 for each 12-credit hour semester.

A second bill, Senate File 36, “Hathaway lump sum merit scholarship,” which would have allowed for scholarship funding to be awarded all at once, rather than on a semester-by-semester basis, failed Monday in a 51-3 vote in the House Committee of the Whole.

SF 36 was also sponsored by the Joint Education Committee, and Co-Chair Rep. Ocean Andrew, R-Laramie, said the goal was to address issues with how Hathaway funds are distributed to students who may not go into a four-year university program.

“Currently, Hathaway funding is distributed over four years, but for students who choose a two-year education program, (they) may only be able to use half of the funds that they earned,” Andrew said. “Not to mention students who go into one-year certificate programs or CTE programs.”

SF 36 would have allowed for a lump sum award.

Rep. Martha Lawley, R-Worland, who sits on the Education Committee, said she was against the bill in committee and remained a no vote.

“I feel it’s a departure from the structure of the Hathaway program, and has some potential problems in terms of giving money upfront,” Lawley said. “That’s just not the way it works.”

Lawley suggested the committee look at possibly awarding a lump sum under the Wyoming’s Tomorrow Scholarship, which is open to students who are 24 or older when they begin school.

“To some degree, this idea of lump sum is sort of targeted at nontraditional students,” Lawley said.

Harshman said that the Wyoming’s Tomorrow Scholarship is “a totally separate program for people who never qualified for the Hathaway, never used the Hathaway.”

Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, also said he was concerned that a 3.5 GPA student would be awarded up to $13,400 at once.

“I don’t have a problem with (the amount),” he said. “But in this situation, let’s say we pay for a single semester, that student could feasibly be getting a check for thousands, many thousands of dollars, and they’re like, “On second thought, I really don’t like school.’” 

A third bill related to Hathaway funding, which would have allowed use of Hathaway scholarships at private post-secondary institutions, failed a necessary two-thirds introductory vote in the House in a 39-23 vote on Feb. 9.

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