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The governor's office has also signaled its interest in experimenting with new mechanisms of funding-albeit on a small scale. One attempt by former Governor Mike Leavitt to get more students through the higher education system in a more efficient, affordable manner was the adoption of the New Century Scholarship Program. This program, adopted in 1999, says that students who obtain an associate degree by September 1 of the year in which they graduate from high school (by taking lower division college courses while still enrolled in high school) will receive a scholarship covering 75% of tuition for two years at any of the state's public institutions that offer baccalaureate programs. (Scholarships can also be used at the state's private institutions with the scholarship amount equal to 75% of the average costs at the state's public institutions.) In FY2003, $250,000 was appropriated for the program. To date, there have been 420 New Century Scholarships awarded, and 45 students have completed the program. The numbers are small enough that the scholarships barely hit the radar screen for most of our informants, yet the very existence of such a program provides evidence of the executive branch's ongoing interest in higher education.
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