Senate Appropriations Chair Keeps OHLAP Funding Promise

State Senate Appropriations Chairman Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater, has kept his word—the state’s Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP) will be fully funded in the 2004-2005 school year.

“Last November, Sen. Herb Rozell and I pledged this would be one of our top priorities for this session. The 9,000 Oklahoma students who are counting on these scholarships this fall can rest assured that promise has been kept,” Morgan said.

Rozell, D-Tahlequah, is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee on Education.
Despite last year’s historic budget shortfall, the lawmakers worked to ensure the nearly 5,000 Oklahoma high school seniors anticipating those scholarships weren’t disappointed.

“It was not easy, but we did secure the $11 million we needed last year to make sure those kids got the opportunity they deserved. During the 2004-2005 school year, we’re going to have 4,800 continuing OHLAP scholarship students plus an additional 4,200 new freshmen. As promised, we’ve allocated $19.2 million this session to fully fund the program,” Rozell said.

OHLAP scholarships are available for Oklahoma high school graduates who have met specific academic requirements, and whose parents make less than $50,000 a year.

Sen. Morgan explained that the $19.2 million to fully fund OHLAP was an investment that will yield high returns for the Oklahoma students earning college degrees and ultimately for the entire state.

“Look at the U.S. Census Bureau figures or talk to experts in economics or in higher education and they’ll tell you that the cities and states with the highest per capita incomes are those with the highest numbers of college graduates,” Morgan said. “OHLAP could well be one of the most important economic development programs Oklahoma has ever implemented.”