DENVER — Talk about higher learning. A Colorado county is mulling whether to create what would be the world’s first public college scholarship program funded with marijuana money.

Pueblo County is considering a 5 percent excise tax on marijuana growers, with half the proceeds designated to a scholarship fund that boosters say would be the first of its kind.

The southern Colorado county has more square footage of recreational marijuana growing than any other county in the state. Pueblo allows growing outside and in greenhouses, which is banned many other places.

The sponsor of the tax measure says it could produce a couple million dollars a year. Pueblo County high school graduates who stay in the county for college would get half the proceeds. The other half would go to county capital improvements.

The county commission votes on the tax next week.