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• In fall 2004, the Opportunity Scholarship covered about 25 percent of a student's mandatory fees and tuition at a state-supported university.
• With inflation and tuition and fee increases, the scholarship paid for about 13 percent of the bill last year, state calculations show.
• Students might decide that taking the more difficult courses required for the scholarship are not worth the amount received anymore. Others might say they can get better financial offers elsewhere.
• The Board of Regents will decide this summer whether they will make the

request for a scholarship increase. Looking at the preliminary evidence, stronger support is needed if South Dakota intends to stay in the game. The spinoff obviously will be that individual state universities will look at what they offer and try to increase those amounts. That's all good for young people.
• South Dakota has the highest percentage of students that graduate with college debt and the only state with no state-funded, need-based student aid program. If national legislation is allowed to expire, students with subsidized Stafford loans will see their interest rates jump from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1. Add more debt, and students try to compensate by working more while in college, adding to the possibility that they will instead drop out.
• We need our college students to graduate and stick around. The next generation of thinkers and doers is a state resource worth the investment. While the exact amount of a scholarship increase deserves discussion, we have fallen behind, and our state scholarship program must be more than a token for it to succeed.

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