Education Policy, Business and Technology

Bevin administration expects Work Ready scholarship to balloon after Medicaid waiver

Lexington Herald Leader: A scholarship program started last year to help more people get technical workforce training certificates has been used by fewer than 1,500 students so far, but state officials said Thursday they expect a dramatic increase thanks to a new requirement that many Medicaid recipients must get jobs or go to school to keep their insurance.

The Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship program started last fall and has used about $2.1 million of the $15.9 million it was appropriated as of the end of February. It was originally created by lawmakers in 2016 to guarantee free community college for all new high school graduates, but Gov. Matt Bevin vetoed that language and restricted the program to those seeking certificates in five industries with worker shortages: health care, advanced manufacturing, transportation/logistics, business services/IT, and construction.

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