High school students who would have barely missed getting the UA Scholars Award could find themselves $14,000 richer if Gov. Frank Murkowski has his way.

Murkowski's budget request for next year, submitted to the state legislature in December, includes $5 million to expand the UA Scholars program to the top 15 percent, rather than 10 percent, of Alaska high school graduates. The award would also increase by $3,000 from $11,000.

"I think you'd agree with me that that's a worthwhile effort," Murkowski said during his December budget presentation.

Mike Chambers, a spokesperson for the governor, said students eligible for the award who are already enrolled at UA would also benefit. Semester allocations would increase from $1,375 to $1,750.

Kate Ripley, a university spokesperson, said the university did not ask for the expansion but is "very supportive of it" nonetheless.

Instituted in 1999, the UA Scholars Award is a four-year scholarship designed to entice top Alaska high school graduates to stay in the state for college. More than 2,400 students have used the award since 1999, according to statewide institutional research.

When the program began, the university estimated only about 100 students in the top 10 percent of their high school class attended UA. In 2005, 1,638 Alaska Scholars were enrolled, making up nearly 10 percent of UA's fulltime student population, university statistics show.

"This program has been a tremendous success as we've seen 98 percent of UA Scholars who graduated in the last five years stay in Alaska," Murkowski said in a December statement.

The university last increased the scholarship's amount in 2000, from $10,800 to $11,000.

But due to tuition increases the scholarship no longer fully covers tuition. When the program began, an Alaska Scholar taking 15 credits of lower division classes had $225 left to pay for fees or other college costs. Today, scholars with that class load could expect to pay an extra $260.

If the governor's plan passed in time for next year's graduating class, a student taking those credits would only owe $50 in 2007, rather than $425 as currently proposed.

Whether the class of 2007 will be the first to benefit from the expansion is unknown. Linda English, the UA Scholars Program's director, said that in order for students just below the top 10 percent line to be eligible, Murkowski's plan would have to be approved by May. Otherwise, it would be available for the class of 2008.

Jennifer Phillips, 19, earned the scholarship after graduating from Diamond High School in Anchorage. When told that her award amount might increase $375, Phillips said she loved the idea.

"That would take a lot of loan money that I wouldn't have to pay back," Phillips said. "That'd be great."

Gavin Piersy, 23, said he wished the award had been expanded to the top 15 percent earlier.

"I was one person away from the top 10 and none of the students who got it went to Alaskan schools," he said.

In recent years, the award has become a financial burden for the university. When introduced in 1999, the program was expected to cost $50,000 to $750,000 annually. Today, it costs $3.6 million.

Last year, the land-grant endowment typically used to finance the scholarship was unable to cover all of its costs, forcing the university to carve $1.6 million out of its regular budget to cover the shortfall. Regents made changes to the land-grant in November to cover this year's costs, but the administration expects to be short again next year.

Murkowski's proposal would put state funding behind the program for the first time. Ripley, the university spokesperson, said the university would continue to fund the top 10 percent of graduates while the state would cover the other 5 percent.

How Murkowski's proposal will play out politically remains to be seen. Democrats have announced their support of the expansion, and the project received large applause during Murkowski's state of the state address. However, with the potential for a deficit to someday return, budget hawks could vote to leave the expansion on the cutting room floor.

The measure will also likely receive increased scrutiny in the Senate, where a university oversight committee made up of five Republicans and two Democrats was approved last week.

Chambers, the Murkowski spokesperson, declined to make bets on what the odds of the proposal getting approved were, but said the governor believes the program "stands on its merits."

A recent poll by the university found that 52 percent of Alaskans support increasing UA funding and half support increasing financial aid.

When Murkowski campaigned for governor in 2002, he pitched a similar expansion to the award's eligibility, with funding coming from development in a proposed Southeast state forest. In 2003, Murkowski proposed funding an expansion using timber sales, but that plan never came to fruit.

Murkowski has yet to announce if he is running for re-election. If he did, though, he could face former Gov. Tony Knowles, who first proposed the program and touted it to young voters during his failed 2004 Senate campaign. Fran Ulmer also campaigned on the scholarship in the 2002 gubernatorial race.