Amend Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative

The act amends provisions relating to the Colorado opportunity scholarship initiative (COSI), including:

• Removing the definition of "tuition assistance" and replacing it with a definition for "financial assistance", which is tied to cost of attendance, and making amendments throughout to reflect the changed terms;
• Removing the statutory restriction that not more than 10% of money in the COSI fund in any fiscal year may be awarded to state agencies and nonprofit organizations for student success and support services and for other services, and the requirement that a certain percentage of the money awarded for student success and support services and for other services be awarded to nongovernmental entities;
• Changing the current provision that, to the extent practicable, scholarships must be equally distributed between students who are eligible for federal PELL grants and students within a certain range of income. Instead, the act requires scholarships to be equitably distributed between students with an expected family contribution, as defined in the act, of less than 100% of the annual federal PELL grant award and students with an expected family contribution between 100% and 250% of the annual federal PELL grant award.
• Removing references to obsolete reports and requirements.

The act amends provisions relating to the payment of administrative expenses by authorizing the department of higher education to spend from the COSI fund an amount equal to not more than 7.5% of total expenditures from the fund for the prior fiscal year unless the general assembly modifies the percentage in the annual budget act.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)