Merit career-technical scholarships.

2015
STATE OF WYOMING
15LSO-0040
ENGROSSED
3.1

HOUSE BILL

NO.
HB0103

Merit career-technical scholarships.

Sponsored by:
Representative(s) Hunt, Allen and Berger and Senator(s) Driskill and Wasserburger

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to career-technical education; providing for a task force to study and prepare plans for implementation of a career-technical education student scholarship program; providing an appropriation; and providing for effective dates.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section
1
.

(a)

There is created a
task

force
on merit career-technical education scholarships to consist of two (2) members of the Wyoming house of representatives, appointed by the speaker of the house, and two (2) members of the Wyoming senate, appointed by the president of the senate,
together with the following members appointed by the governor:

(i)

One (1) representative of community colleges;

(ii)

Two (2) representatives from business and industry;

(i
ii
)

One (1) representative of the public at-large;

(
i
v)

One (1) representative from the Wyoming
public schools
career-technical education community;

(v)

One (1) representative from the Wyoming department of education career-technical education program;

(vi)

One (1) member of the state board of education.

(b)

The
task

force
shall study the establishment of a student merit career-technical education scholarship
program
.
The goal of the
task

force
shall be to make recommendations to the Wyoming legislature for future legislation necessary for a student merit career-technical education scholarship program to make career-technical education post

secondary programs in Wyoming as free as possible to Wyoming high school graduates. The
task

force
shall consider and make recommendations as to the following:

(i)

The amount of tuition, fees and other education related payments which can be sustained from anticipated earnings from the merit career-technical education student scholarship account;

(ii)

Career-technical institutions to be eligible for student scholarships awarded under this act, including public and private institutions, with consideration given to any constitutional limitations governing the expenditure of public funds for scholarship purposes;

(iii)

Scholarship qualification requirements and requirements to maintain a scholarship including
consideration of high school course completion requirements, performance levels on high school assessments and post

secondary entry examinations, and academic progress requirements for scholarship eligibility maintenance;

(iv)

Reentry requirements for students failing to maintain eligibility requirements of post

secondary institutions;

(v)

Waiver provisions, if any, regarding any of the entry or continuing scholarship requirements;

(vi)

Administrative oversight of the program;

(vii)

An implementation date for the program;

(viii)

F
unding for the program.

(c)

In addition to subsection (b) of this section, the recommendation of the
task

force
shall include a requirement that the department of education collect such information from school districts, Wyoming community
colleges and technical schools operating in this state, as determined necessary by the department of work

force services to evaluate the impacts of the scholarship program on state employment and wages. The
recommendations shall include a request for
evaluation by the department of work

force services based upon studied control groups of program participants and nonparticipants and shall
include a recommendation to
annually
report
to th
e joint appropriations and
education interim
committee
s
.
The report shall also
include recommendations to
identify the return on investment of the scholarship program, improve student career counseling and incorporate representative employer assessment of the skills competency of program and control participants.

(d)

The
task

force
shall be staffed by the legislative service office. State agencies shall provide information to the
task

force
as requested in order to fulfill its duties. The legislative members of the
task

force
shall receive compensation, per diem and travel expenses in the manner and amount prescribed by W.S. 28
‑
5
‑
101.
Task

force
members who are not legislators and are not state employees shall
not receive salaries, but
shall
receive the per diem and mileage paid members of the Wyoming legislature under W.S. 28
‑
5
‑
101 for each day of actual
task

force
meetings and travel to those meetings.

(e)

The
task

force
shall report its initial findings and recommendations to the governor,
the joint appropriations and
education interim
committees
by November 1, 2015.

(f)

This
task

force shall cease to exist on
March 31, 201
6
.

Section
2
.

There is appropriated from the general fund to the legislative service office
twenty
thousand dollars ($
2
0,000.00) or as much thereof as is necessary to fund the merit career-technical education student scholarship
task

force
in carrying
out its duties under this act.

Section
3
.

This act is
effective
immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

(END)

1