SESSION OF 2001

SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE ON HOUSE BILL NO. 2014

As Recommended by House Committee on Higher Education

HB 2014 makes changes to the professional service scholarships administered by the Kansas Board of Regents.

Under the professional service scholarships, the state provides financial assistance to a student enrolled in a particular field of study. In exchange, the student agrees to practice or be employed in targeted areas for a certain period of time, most commonly one year of service for each year of financial assistance. The following summarizes the current service requirements, applicable bill sections, and changes to the service requirements under the bill:

Professional Scholarship Service Commitments

Current Law HB 2014 Changes

Osteopathic Scholarship

(Bill sections 1-6) Practice primary care medicine full-time in Kansas in a county other than Douglas, Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee, or Wyandotte or at least half-time in a state medical care facility or institution for one year for each year of scholarship assistance.

Add obstetrics and gynecology to the definition of primary care medicine; allow part-time practice to qualify for proportional compliance; authorize the Board of Regents to designate medically underserved areas which also qualify for compliance.

Optometry Scholarship

(Bill sections 7-9) Practice optometry in Kansas one year for each year of scholarship assistance. (Not applicable to those who attend Missouri under reciprocal agreement.)

Allow part-time practice to qualify for proportional compliance.

Nursing Scholarship

(Bill sections 10-18) Work full-time for sponsoring health care facility one year for each year of scholarship assistance or the proportional equivalent if working less than full-time.

Add a licensed home health agency to the list of approved sponsoring health care facilities.

Teacher Scholarship

(Bill sections 19-26) Teach full-time in a hard-to-fill teaching discipline, as determined by the State Board of Education, for one year for each year of scholarship assistance.

Add geographic areas of the state where there is a critical shortage of teachers, as determined by the State Board of Education, as a qualifying service; allow part-time teaching to qualify for proportional compliance.

Ethnic Minority Fellowship

(Bill sections 27-33) Work full-time for an accredited Kansas educational institution for a period equivalent to the period fellowship assistance was provided.

Work for an accredited Kansas elementary or secondary school or postsecondary educational institution for a period equivalent the period fellowship assistance was provided; allow part-time work to qualify for proportional compliance.

ROTC Scholarship

(Bill sections 34-40) Serve for four years as an officer in the Kansas National Guard.

Same.

Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Scholarship (ARNP)

(Bill sections 41-48). Practice full-time or the equivalent to full-time as an advanced registered nurse practitioner in a medically underserved area by specialty or a critically medically underserved area by specialty as defined by KSA 76-375 or in a county with a population of not more than 20,000 one year for each year of scholarship assistance.

Practice one year for each year of scholarship assistance in a medically underserved area as defined by the State Board of Regents or in a county other than Douglas, Johnson, Sedgwick, Shawnee, or Wyandotte; allow part-time practice to qualify for proportional compliance.

Scholarship Amounts. The value of the current maximum award available under professional scholarships varies between the programs, ranging from tuition waivers (ROTC) to $15,000 per year (Osteopathic and ARNP). HB 2014 would standardize the maximum award for the undergraduate programs (Teacher, Nursing, and ROTC) at 70.0 percent of the cost of program attendance at an institution under the control of the State Board of Regents. Cost of attendance includes tuition, fees, books, supplies, room, board, and miscellaneous expenses. For FY 2000, 70.0 percent of cost of attendance for an average undergraduate program at a Board of Regents institution was $6,823. For the graduate school programs the maximum award would be 100.0 percent of the cost of attendance for the Ethnic Minority Fellowship program and 70.0 percent of the cost of attendance for the ARNP program. The Osteopathic Scholarship award would be tied to the amount provided under the Medical Student Loan program at the University of Kansas Medical Center (budgeted at $24,864 for FY 2002).

Penalties. For most of the scholarships, a recipient who fails to complete the service commitment is required to repay the financial assistance with interest. Under current law, the interest rate is set by statute at 15.0 percent. HB 2014 would change the applicable interest rate to a variable rate tied to the interest rate for the federal Parent Loan for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program plus five percentage points. Currently this equates to approximately 14.0 percent. In the case of the ROTC scholarship, current law provides that any person who fails to fulfill the commitment to serve as an officer in the Kansas National Guard must serve in the Guard as an enlisted member. HB 2014 removes this provision and replaces it with repayment provisions similar to the other scholarships.

Advisory Committee. The bill creates a new eight member Professional Service Scholarship Advisory Committee, appointed by the Board of Regents. Committee members are to include a representative of osteopaths, dentists, teachers, optometrists, ethnic minority graduate students, reserve officer candidates, nurses, and the Chairperson of the Nursing Scholarship Review Committee or a designee of the Chairperson. The Professional Service Scholarship Advisory Committee will provide recommendations to the Board of Regents regarding budget requests for and administration of professional service scholarships.

Other Provisions. In addition, HB 2014:

•Standardizes the grace period to begin service after graduation or licensure at six months (except ROTC);
•Adds "family leave", as determined by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, and "extenuating services", as determined by the Board of Regents, to the list of reasons why the service obligation could be deferred;
•Gives the Board of Regents the option of serving as the collecting agent for scholarships which enter repayment status or contacting for collection services from an outside entity;
•Expands the definition of "Asian" in the Ethnic Minority Fellowship program to include the Pacific Islands and other Asian countries in addition to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Korea.

Background

HB 2014 was introduced by the Legislative Educational Planning Committee. The bill is identical to 2000 SB 381 as that bill was passed by the Senate. Conferees appeared in support of the bill before the House Committee on Higher Education representing the Board of Regents, osteopaths, optometrists, teachers, and the Kansas National Guard. No one appeared in opposition to the bill, although the Kansas National Guard expressed concern about expanding the maximum possible award.

The fiscal note on HB 2014 estimates the bill could increase expenditures by $280 for support of the Professional Service Scholarship Advisory Committee. The fiscal note also states that any funding for the professional service scholarships is subject to appropriations.

1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/fulltext.cgi