As we say goodbye to tax season again, I call my fellow South Carolinians to action. Please stop our precious dollars from being wasted on state scholarships. Some of the lottery money — spent on the LIFE scholarships and the Palmetto Scholarships — unfortunately was wasted this past year.

These scholarships are great efforts to making college more affordable, and I am very thankful for the scholarships I received. However, they do not take the federal tax system into consideration. South Carolina is not rich enough for the luxury of passing up federal money and replacing it with state money.

There is federal money available to help students pay for the cost of college tuition. It comes in the form of a tax credit. There are actually more than one tax credit available, though you can only take one per year. They are the Hope credit and the Lifelong Learning Credit. If a student’s income is not too high, the credits could offer the student up to $2,000.

The main qualification for these credits is that the student, or the parents of a dependent student, must have paid his or her own tuition. Not all of it must be paid by the student, but at least some of it. Also, it is a tax credit, not a deduction, so the student or parent must owe taxes when April 15 comes around again. It will reduce the amount of taxes owed to the federal government.

The problem with our state scholarships is that they sometimes cover the total amount of college tuition. This is especially true at our technical schools, such as Midlands Technical College. This is also true at our four-year colleges such as the University of South Carolina when students receive numerous scholarships. Of course, a scholarship that covers all tuition sounds ideal at first, but then the student is not eligible for the tax credit. Remember, students must pay at least some of their own tuition in order to be eligible.

When this happens, we are replacing federal money with state money. Essentially, we are turning down the federal money and throwing away the state’s. I doubt the federal government is complaining.

How often does this happen? How many thousands of dollars are wasted each year because of this? It’s unclear, since tax records are private. Since we live in a state that needs to save every dime, I know any wasted money is too much.

South Carolina does not have enough money to do this year after year. Our state needs to address the efficiency of its policies in determining scholarship disbursement. Every federal dollar we turn down is one that could be going to our students in greater need.

How often do you hear of the underprivileged not getting enough money to go to college? How often do you hear complaints about college getting too expensive for everyone? Here is the opportunity to give South Carolina’s students more without changing the state budget at all. The state would just have to change who is getting the money by not giving enough to cover the tuition of those who would qualify for the tax credits.

Ms. Willard is a native of Coronaca and a master's degree student in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program at USC.