Rigorous classes may pay off for 8th-graders

Thousands of eighth-graders will have another reason to look forward to college.

The House of Representatives voted to accept a bill that would promise a $1,000 scholarship to students who accomplish a more rigorous course of study in high school — courses that would also better prepare them for college.

SB180 requires that eighth-graders entering high school take four full years of English, four years of math higher than algebra, three-and-a-half years of social studies, three years of lab science, and two years of foreign language. The students completing the courses could be awarded a $1,000 scholarship to be used at any Utah System of Higher Education institution.