South Carolina’s Commission on Higher Education disclosed a projected $25 million shortfall in state scholarship funding after underestimating the amount required for the current fiscal year. L. Jeffrey Perez, the commission’s president and executive director, said the agency learned of the gap last week, and that it will delay payments to colleges and complicate upcoming budget negotiations. The commission initially projected $302 million needed with $2.7 million in carryover funds; it now expects it will need about $330 million, including higher scholarship participation. Perez told the South Carolina Daily Gazette that roughly 4,000 more people received scholarships this year than last. Although the delay is not expected to directly harm students because colleges already credited scholarships against tuition, the operational disruption raises questions about the reliability of state scholarship planning and whether more conservative forecasting is needed for next-year appropriations.