Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Higher Education Finance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Panel hears Regents' request to let CEO settle scholarship repayment obligations; members ask about thresholds
Summary
House Bill 2485 would let the Board of Regents' chief executive negotiate and settle repayment obligations from service scholarships and make students ineligible for other Board scholarships while in repayment; Revisor and Regents' staff said collections costs have grown and decisions would be handled case‑by‑case with hardship provisions.
The Committee on Education heard explanation and testimony on House Bill 2485, a Board of Regents request that would allow the Board's chief executive officer to negotiate and settle repayment obligations arising when scholarship recipients fail to meet service agreements.
Revisor Jason Long told members HB 2485 "extends that authority to also grant the chief executive officer of the Board of Regents the authority to negotiate and settle any repayment obligations that have arisen." The bill also contains a provision that a student with an active repayment obligation would be ineligible to receive funds from other Board‑administered scholarship programs until the obligation is satisfied, and the change would take effect July 1 if enacted.
Vice President Frisbie (Board of Regents staff) said the change responds to workload and cost concerns in administering the Promise Act and other service scholarships. She described cases where the cost to service and pursue small, aged obligations outstrips recovery value and said the agency wants flexibility to settle some accounts. In oral testimony she cited trends in servicing costs, noting that in fiscal year 2019 the agency paid a third‑party servicer about $539, and in 2025 that servicing amount "has now exceeded $11,000." She also described students currently in repayment who were applying for and receiving other scholarships and said the bill would allow the Regents to prohibit that practice while an account remains unresolved.
Members asked for clarity about thresholds and whether the director could write off entire balances. Frisbie said the bill makes settlement authority available but that the agency does not propose a specific dollar threshold in the text; settlements and write‑offs would be made on a case‑by‑case basis and existing hardship provisions already allow agencies to consider individual circumstances.
Revisor Long said the changes reference statute in chapter 74 (article 32) and that the authority would apply to existing programs and any future service scholarship programs created by the legislature.
The committee closed the HB 2485 hearing and moved on to other bills. No committee vote was recorded in the transcript during the meeting.
Committee members asked staff to supply trend details and clarifying tables cited in testimony for follow‑up.
