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Missouri Legislature Asked to Consider Changes to Bright Flight Scholarship

Holley St. Germain/Flickr

  

An advocacy group is pushing the Missouri Legislature to reconsider how it awards scholarships for a 30-year-old program designed to keep the brightest college students in the state.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Active Advocacy Coalition, a statewide group of students working to improve access to education, was in Jefferson City with policy experts Wednesday to make their case to legislators.

The group says the state would get more value by directing money used for the Bright Flight scholarship to low-income students rather than to select, well-off students who usually receive the award.

About 6,000 students qualify for Bright Flight scholarships each year. The program generally rewards students who score in the top 3 percent on the ACT standardized test.

The state spent $17 million on the program in 2014.