Private-college officials in Minnesota are urging the state to create a new scholarship program that would pay high-school students who are from low-income families or who would be among the first generation of their family to attend college to take academically challenging courses.

Advocates of the plan argue that it would increase the likelihood that the students would graduate from high school, enroll in college, and succeed there.

The program, which would cost about $50-million per year, was part of a broad agenda proposed by the Minnesota Private College Council, which represents 17 private, four-year, liberal-arts colleges in the state. Under the council’s proposal, eligible students would receive scholarship funds from the state for every rigorous course they took and passed. State lawmakers would set the size of the awards, which would be deposited into a state education-savings plan for each student.