FRANKFORT — The Kentucky House on Thursday passed a bill that essentially guarantees two years of free tuition at the state’s community colleges for eligible Kentucky high school graduates.

House Bill 626, sponsored by Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, requires students to apply for all other available aid, to maintain a 2.0 grade point average and take 12 credit hours a semester. The state would then pick up the difference in tuition after their other aid is deducted.

Stumbo calls the plan the Work Force Ready Scholarship program, basing it on a similar model in Tennessee. It will cost the state about $20 million a year.

But for that $20 million, Stumbo said, “Every child in Kentucky who attends community college will receive two years of free tuition.”

Some Republicans questioned whether students shouldn’t have to pay some costs or to have “skin in the game” while others wondered if the 2.0 GPA was too low of a bar.

But Rep. Tommy Thompson, D-Owensboro, said the program will help build a better educated more skilled workforce, supplying needed workers for employers and income and career for students.

Rep. Rick Nelson, D-Middlesboro, said students earn such scholarship funds as the lottery-funded KEES Scholarships through good grades.

The House also passed a bill requiring individual and small group insurers to offer coverage for autism spectrum disorders, sponsored by Rep. Sannie Overly, D-Paris.

Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, asked to amend the measure on the floor to require insurers to provide a liaison to assist the insured party with dealing with the insurer. He’d offered the proposal in a separate bill but it had never been heard in committee, Hoover said.

But Speaker Pro Tem Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, ruled the amendment a “piggyback” — language from another bill — and thus out of order at Overly’s request.

Overly subsequently characterized Hoover’s amendment as well intentioned and said she’d support a change to her bill in the Senate or passing Hoover’s bill separately.

But Hoover said she waited until his amendment had been killed to praise it, calling the experience one of his most frustrating in 20 years in the General Assembly.

Hoover said the measure was to help the parents of a child in his extended family and was not a partisan request.

“It’s not about me,” Hoover said. “It’s about children with autism.”

In the end, Hoover voted for Overly’s bill but questioned why his amendment couldn’t have been added.

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.