State regents looking to alter AIMS scholarships

The Arizona Board of Regents still are considering making changes to the state’s AIMS scholarship.

But a revised proposal released late Wednesday would grandfather in this year’s high school juniors and seniors under existing criteria. The original proposal would have started phasing out the scholarship beginning with juniors.

The Arizona Republic says the latest proposal would keep the scholarship but make it tougher for students to get one, beginning with this year’s high school sophomores.

Under the new criteria, students would need to earn an “exceeds” rating on all three parts of the AIMS test and score at least a 28 on the ACT or at least 1,300 on the SAT college-entrance exams as well as meet certain minimum grade requirements. The amount of the scholarship also would be lowered from 100 percent of tuition to 25 percent.