2010 Mississippi Code
TITLE 37 - EDUCATION
Chapter 143 - Omnibus Loan or Scholarship Act of 1991.
37-143-3 - Legislative findings and purposes.

§ 37-143-3. Legislative findings and purposes.
 

The Legislature makes the following findings of fact and declarations of purpose: By legislative enactment, five (5) loan or scholarship programs have been created wherein Mississippi residents are granted scholarships in certain professional fields in return for their contractual obligation to perform services in such professions under a variety of requirements of location, duration, manner and mode of service, and institution in which performed. Such loan or scholarship programs provide variously for different degrees of recourse in the event that the recipient's contract is not fulfilled, but shall provide in every case that the scholarship convert to a loan which must be repaid at interest and, in some of the programs, require the payment of penalties also. In addition to the foregoing described loan or scholarship programs, a State of Mississippi fund-financed loan program was created in the Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Law of 1975. The purposes and needs, for which the Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Law was enacted, have now been almost entirely supplanted by the provisions of the federal laws providing for guaranteed student loans. The Legislature further finds, that as a result of the restrictive and punitive provisions contained in the loan or scholarship programs in existence prior to this chapter, there are low levels of utilization of such programs. The Legislature further finds that such programs being enacted at various times and for various specialized purposes have inconsistencies in the provisions for their administration, which should be made consistent, uniform and regular. The Legislature further finds that because of the low use of the Postsecondary Education Financial Assistance Law, there are sums of monies dedicated for use in student loans or scholarships which could be utilized in the improved scholarship or loan programs created by this chapter. The Legislature finds and declares that such older existing revolving funds should be collapsed and consolidated into a single revolving fund in support of the loan or scholarship programs authorized herein. The Legislature further finds and declares that there is a need for the creation of additional scholarship programs for the purpose of encouraging eligible Mississippi residents to enter into professional schools, and that, in particular, there should be programs to encourage the participation of minorities in graduate professional programs in the institutions of this state, and that the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning should be granted the power and authority to create and implement such new loan or scholarship programs as the need may arise. And the Legislature further finds and declares that there is a need to create an ability within the board of trustees to fashion new and innovative systems for the financing of loan or scholarship programs by combining the use of private sector loans for education and guaranteed student loans with scholarship repayment programs promulgated by the board, and that the board should be granted authority to devise and develop such innovative systems to obtain the most efficient use of state funds to encourage entry and service in certain professional fields. 
 

Sources: Laws,  1991, ch. 547, § 2, eff from and after July 1, 1991.