Put an income cap on who qualifies for HOPE Scholarships
Again, the state is warning that the cherished HOPE Scholarship – which puts thousands of middle-class students through college, including one of mine — is running low. See Laura Diamond’s story today.
I see an immediate solution, and not too many folks are going to like it. In fact, if most of you were in my newsroom now, you’d break off the chair legs and chase me down Marietta Street.
But here goes: Put an income cap on who gets HOPE. (That’s how it started, by the way.)
Early on, a study by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University found that HOPE fuels the college hopes of kids who never lacked for it in the first place. Only 4 percent of the money spent on HOPE went to students who might not otherwise have gone to college, according to the Harvard study.
Is this the best focus of the HOPE millions – increasing college choice for middle-class and affluent students who were university-bound from the womb? Or would the money be better used to increase college access for less well-off kids for whom college was not a birthright?
With only a 3.0 average in high school required to earn HOPE, practically every upper-income student in Georgia qualifies, which is why the program is fast outstripping the lottery revenues that support it. The generous scholarship pays the entire tuition and fees and provides a book stipend for Georgia students attending in-state public schools.
Where is the right income cutoff? I would think somewhere above $100,000 a year. The state could consider the same income criteria that colleges use to determine need-based aid.
The state could also increase the required merit to qualify for HOPE. Perhaps, students could meet two out of three criteria to earn the scholarship — grade-point average, SAT scores or class rank. (Class rank will capture the kids in low-achieving rural schools who didn’t get the tools needed to do well on the SAT but still strove to place at the top of their class.)
OK, I am ready for the slings, arrows and general denouncements.
But I also want a better plan. How did we save HOPE when the demand is rising and lottery funds are flagging?
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194 comments Add your comment
Sue
August 31st, 2009
2:58 pm
Is that $100K before or after giving to charities? Another example of hard work and good deeds being punished. All this idea will ever promote is more laziness on the part of the parent. ALL kids who work hard should be awarded.
You Big Babies
August 31st, 2009
2:58 pm
Wow! As someone who comes from a state where there is no HOPE all I can say is many of you are a bunch of entitled babies! HOPE is a right for my kids, blah, blah, blah. You are probably the same parents that stand out at the bus stop with your kids. Most kids in this country have to get student loans, and they manage to get jobs and eventually pay them off. It’s the way it used to be for everyone. I say do it like tuition reimbursement for workers. Pay for your first semester, and if you’re grades play out, then you get the money, if not…you foot the bill yourself. College is not compulsory, and therefore the state is not obligated to give you any money for it. Sure we all want things to be cheaper, but maybe if some of you stopped driving your matching Lexus SUVs, and cut back on expenses you would be able to afford for Trevor and Buffy to go to college.
David
August 31st, 2009
3:00 pm
Gwinnett Parent … if you don’t want the parents income in the equasion, you will have to remove it from all from the criteria of all funding sources. Student loans, grants, etc., all take the parents income to account.
Skram30082
August 31st, 2009
3:02 pm
How about changing HOPE from a scholarship program to a tuition reimbursement program? Parents and students would be responsible for the tuition for the first semester, and would be reimbursed based on acheiving a 3.0 GPA. That money, in turn, would be used to pay the tuition for the next semester.
HOPE, as it is structured now, has become nothing but an entitlement program. I’m all for helping people go to college, but parents and students must be required to bear some of the responsibility (i.e. cost) of attending college.
This seems like a no-brainer to me.
Laura
August 31st, 2009
3:07 pm
Conservative Hypocrisy,
I am NOT a Republican or a conservative by any means, but apparently that’s become an insult to anyone who advocates people doing stuff for themselves, so whatever.
Perhaps the individuals playing the lottery and wishing for a miracle should focus more on doing stuff to better themselves and less time throwing their money away on a pipe dream that will probably never come true.
BTW, you misread my taxation comment, which seeing as how you had a “point” to make does not shock me at all. I said that the lottery is LIKE a tax. Tax dollars go to public schools to help out students, so why should the lottery money NOT GO TO HELP STUDENTS AS WELL. Heck, you could say that it’s more justified than using tax dollars, because everyone knows what that money goes towards, wheras there are people being forced to pay property tax who no longer have children who are school aged or never had them to begin with. I never said that paying taxes entitled me to HOPE, but apparently you can’t read for context.
I paid for my masters MYSELF because that is something that I wanted to do. And, like many others, my family falls into that gray area of making too much to get grants and scholarships and the like, though I guess I could have always have used my ethnicity as a crutch and made my education based on something superficial like race and not based on what I can do as a person.
1gadawg
August 31st, 2009
3:10 pm
all I’ll say is that – they sure didn’t ask my income when i bought my lottery tickets! It should be based strictly on the student’s performance and ability to meet the requirements. Looks like another attempt at liberal socialism.
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August 31st, 2009
3:11 pm
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August 31st, 2009
3:11 pm
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Shannon, M.Div.
August 31st, 2009
3:15 pm
Of *course* there are calls to do away with the pre-K program and divert the money into HOPE. Middle-class families handle socialization and early exposure to reading and counting on their own; it’s only the lower-class families who really need pre-K.
Ultimately, too many people who were born on third base think they hit a home run. Here’s a tip: just because you worked hard for it doesn’t mean that you ONLY got it because you worked hard. There’s a difference between necessary and sufficient. Yes, it’s necessary to work hard to be successful… but it is not sufficient.
Kitty
August 31st, 2009
3:17 pm
Heck no, don’t put a cap on the income. It is for students who would otherwise not receive any help from other sources. Keep it like it is, financial aid is not an option for many students.
You Big Babies
August 31st, 2009
3:17 pm
1gadawg, you must have been kicked in the head by a horse. Liberal Socialism??? The vast majority of the state is conservative GOP. BTW, if you really want to show your conservative mettle then you should support doing away with the HOPE all together. Maybe take the money and put it towards K-12, and cut people’s property tax rates.
Ms.S
August 31st, 2009
3:17 pm
Unbelivable here we go again. The problem is the unequal education in this State and in the whole US. Great example Fulton County School system, you might as well say that it has two school systems in one. North County verses South County. There is a great big discrepancy 1) they way the students are taught and treated. The North gets everything. They teach their kids how to take these Standardize test(all the tricks and short cuts) Not necessarily are they teaching these kids to learn the material but how to ace these test so they can get great SAT and ACT soores to get these scholarships and to be able to get into college. However on the Southside they don’t do that they must teach kids the material and the kids must know this stuff. But if you aren’t taught how to take and pass these standardized test you too will be left behind. Its not that poor kids and African Americans are not smart or that they don’t want to learn or that they are not learning but when you don’t have a level playing field what the Heck do you expect. And please don’t say that this doesn’t happen because it does. You can’t tell me that all white people are just so darn smart and that all black people are all dumb and stupid. Lets just remember who really built American and came up with a whole lot of inventions that we use in this world today. It was African Americans, however due to the racism in this country and unfairness most of these pattens were stolen and the credit was not given to the correct person who actually came up with the inventions. The problem with America school system is that each city, state, jusirdiction have different curriculums. There should be the same Curriculum at every school in America. That would be a fair and level playing ground. Lets get real its okay to pay for people who can afford to send their kids to school even though they may not be all that smart but because they are taught how to standardized test and get by that is fine. I don’t think that’s right taking my hard earned money to give them yet another free ride. But heaven forbid you want to help better the poor then you say not with your F*** tax dollars. So darn unfair in America. I just wonder what the hell are you people going to say when you have to stand before God in judgement day and he ask you why didn’t you help the poor. You all are some Greedy uncompassionate people. But God help you. That is why America is in the trouble that it is in today. When are you all going to learn. The more you try to keep one set of people or class of people down it is only going to hurt everybody and backfire on you. Stop being Greedy.
Parent
August 31st, 2009
3:23 pm
Merit scholarships are also hard to come by. My son graduated with a 3.91 GPA. He took a total of nine AP classes in high school so he did not take all easy courses and he received NO scholarships except the Hope even though we applied to as many merit scholarshps as we could find. My husband and I make more then 100,000 a year and have three children. If we did not have the Hope it would be very difficult to put them thru college. Yes, they would still go but the Hope has made it just a little easier
Nate
August 31st, 2009
3:24 pm
So I had to chime in on this HOPE Scholarship thing since I’m a current college student. First of all, I go to Georgia Tech and keeping HOPE here is no walk in the park. I think the statistics show that like 80% of incoming freshmen at Tech lose HOPE the first year. I see some parents making fun of college students with just a 3.0 GPA. You obviously didn’t go to Tech where a 3.0 means you literally dedicated your life to school. I not complaining, I’m just saying that a 3.0 at Tech is not a 3.0 at Georgia Southern or Kennesaw. Obviously, I’m not trying to offend those schools, I think this is just a given. Also to the person who said that those students who finished in the top of their class in high school (obviously with something close to a 4.0) don’t need HOPE because they will qualify for an academic scholarship is totally wrong. My brother and I both finished in the top 5% of our class at East Coweta High School of 500 graduating students and yet neither of us received an academic scholarship. Also, don’t get me started on scholarships, I’ve seen first hand how students get scholarships simply because of race and background not because of actual community involvement, academic success, etc. Therefore, the HOPE scholarship meant everything to both us since my parents are a teacher and technician. So don’t go giving me this crap about how a 3.0 meant you slept through college.
Larry
August 31st, 2009
3:33 pm
Add me to your surprise count of folks who think pre-k is a waste of money.
Had one kid in pre-k and one kid in quality day care. Can’t say I there was any difference between what the kids learned or the cost to me.
Available money should be put to a better use.
nowhereman
August 31st, 2009
3:36 pm
1. Organized Crime ran the numbers racket until the State ran them out of that business.
2. Lotteries such as HOPE have been called ‘poor people putting middle-class kids through college.’ But to some in the middle-class, that still seems to be better than poor people putting rich kids through college.
3. Instead of proposing an income cap for eligibility, why isn’t the AJC, or any media outlet, investigating and exposing why costs for higher education have increased much faster than healthcare costs for the last decade? Havard has an endowment of 36 Billion dollars; enough to provide every student now attending with a free ride. Yet their tuition keeps going up. To a slightly lesser extent, that’s true of almost every institution of higher learning. They hoard their assets while raising tution so than can raise salaries for tenured professors (many who hardly ever teach) They’ve been hoping nobody will notice. And so far, not many have.
doit
August 31st, 2009
3:37 pm
Ms. S, thanks for playing the race card so well. You must be an experienced card player. who is playing entitlement whore now? i am poor and black. gimme, gimme, gimme. give us a break. i am pretty sure that I had nothing to do with racism in this country, considering that my family came here and worked as migrant farmworkers. but, my hispanc forefathers didnt bit*& and moan about how racism affected them. they didnt lament how they were victims. they didnt stand before their fellow americans and say they owed them. no, they worked their butts off, forced their children to read, had stable homes, and now, i can proudly say that all of my cousins and second cousins are college graduates, with many going to graduate or professional school.
And when I stand before God, I will proudly say that I can be counted among the proud of my family because what I accomplished was from my own blood, sweat and toil and not from any handouts.
Good day.
EMB
August 31st, 2009
3:38 pm
If $100,000 was the cap, then a student whose parents are teachers would be ineligible for HOPE. Let’s say it is a family of four with two kids entering college, and both parents are veteran teachers. It would be more profitable for the family to have one of the parents stay home so that they are under the $100,000 cap and eligible for HOPE for their two students (plus they wouldn’t have to pay income taxes on the second income). Why would the government ever want to encourage LESS productivity??
If you really have to cut funding, then raise the standard to a GPA of 3.1 or 3.2.
Amazed
August 31st, 2009
3:38 pm
Other states offer tiered programs that increase the award based on GPA/SAT etc. This methodology seems fair to me – also not every kid needs to go to a 4 year school. There are many that could make a great living in technical trades etc. that a pushed into programs where they eventually fail. What is the drop out rate for HOPE students in the first 2 years? Lets judge the program by that measure.
doit
August 31st, 2009
3:41 pm
oh, and Ms. S, despite what you want to believe, Fulton county has the same curriculum, all of it. you want to know the biggest difference. those in north fulton, on average, expect, i said, EXPECT their kids to excel in school. Those in south fulton, expect, i said EXPECT their kids to fail. you dont want to believe me? ask any teacher that has worked in both and see how much effort on average each parent goes towards their kids, how poorly or how well acting the kids are in each.
sorry to bust your bubble, but this country is repleat with stories of kids in downtrodden and impovrished areas that worked their butts off to become successful. it was a choice.
b6542
August 31st, 2009
3:41 pm
Very ironic discussion. Place an income limit on who can PLAY the lottery…….
blameitontherain
August 31st, 2009
3:43 pm
ms s, i think we heard that old song and dance before.
Webster Riverside
August 31st, 2009
3:45 pm
How about only using lottery money for HOPE Scholarships and Pre-K. How many other non direct educational programs get money from the Ga Lottery. Thats is a story that needs to be written.
blameitontherain
August 31st, 2009
3:46 pm
what is funny is that poor people complain that they are putting middle class kids through school. simple solution, stop spending what little cash you have on lottery tickets with ZERO chance of winning and spend it on a book for your kids. also, might as well stop spending what little money you have on smoking, as cigs are taxed heavily as well. also, put into there liquor. actually, why not do something that a lot of americans have to do, and that is spend within your means.
jim d
August 31st, 2009
3:48 pm
Saving HOPE is a peice of cake—I’ve offered the solution time and again in these blogs.
Quit making it an entitlement and eliminate the millions spent every year on kids that don’t keep it. MAKE IT A Reimbursable
mdowney
August 31st, 2009
3:48 pm
On the question of merit scholarships:
A few years ago, I attended a program on scholarships and aid and learned that about 98 percent of the aid students receive – whether need or merit – comes from the colleges they attend.
Only 2 percent is from other sources so I question all the time kids spend applying for “outside” scholarships. I also think that people have an unrealistic notion of how much scholarship money is available.
That said, I interviewed a Tech student who applied for hundreds of scholarship she found on the Internet or through her guidance counselor; she spent every night of her senior year writing essays on why she loved her country or why she drank milk and ended up with a $500 prize here, a $250 scholarship there.
All told, she made $5,000 in one-time scholarships.
Maureen
nowhereman
August 31st, 2009
3:51 pm
mDowney, while she was it she could have also dropped an line to the board of regents asking why tuition was so high….
jim d
August 31st, 2009
3:52 pm
or just change the name to Obama’s educational redistribution plan (OERP)
common sense
August 31st, 2009
3:52 pm
I doubt anyone will scrolled down far enough to see this – but lets talk HOPE. I have seen a lot of posts talking about WHY it was initially created – they are all in some degree correct – but mostly wrong. HOPE was created by a politician up for re-election – period. Zell Miller in a move of political genius, created a way to woo the middle class and solidify himself with the largest voting block in the state – people who want a better life for their children. However, the HOPE scholarship has become exactly what it was intended to be – a middle class entitlement. The middle class, for better or worse, has come to depend on and expect the HOPE scholarship. Yes, we should help those less fortunate who want to succeed, but we should not punish a hard working student because of who his parents are.
what's right for kids???
August 31st, 2009
3:54 pm
Ms. S, I can assure you that the teachers in North Fulton teach curriculum standards; they are the same standards that the teachers in south county should teach, as well as the teachers all over Georgia.
And it’s tests, not test, especially when you put a plural article in front of the word.
What, then, is best for all kids? Would it be better to reimburse? Do we do away with grades all together and base the award on SAT, ACT and need??? I think we should simply base the award on scores and call it a day.
Rich
August 31st, 2009
3:56 pm
My solution would be to include the SAT with the GPA. At some point, if the SAT does not exceed a theshold the hope should only pay for a local community college. Too many of the kids are going to a 4 year college unprepared. Raising the GPA will lead to more grade inflation and not help the problem. The community colleges are less expensive than a 4 year school. If the student does well at the community college, they can transfer to the 4 year school to finsh. This should lower the cost and help student succeed. In Gwinnett, 20% of the student graduated with honors (90% or above: “A” average), what percentage had a “B” average? Grade inflation is widespread.
Big Al
August 31st, 2009
3:56 pm
Ms.S, not sure where to start, so I will just say a couple of things.
1) If the way things are taught is the reason for the discrepancy in scores, why don’t “Southside” teachers learn how to teach like the northside teachers? Seems pretty simple.
2) I help the poor through private donations to non-profits. Part of how I decide who to give money to is how well they spend the $$. Government does not have the accountability of the non-profit world, but they contnue to try and serve the poor through businesses they cannot adequately run (ever dealt with HUD, VA or other gov’t agencies?). The more the government takes from my paycheck in taxes, the less I can afford to give to non-profits that do their work more efficiently than the government. Thus, in the long run the poor actually suffer through additional redistribution of wealth.
3) Also, screaming about the white racists and how everything is unfairly slanted away from African Americans or is stolen or whatever the hell you were ranting about just displays your own racism towards non-African Americans. ever heard of Affirmative Action? Seems like there is a pretty unfair playing field. Oh, but that helps African Americans, so why would you mention that?
Reality 2
August 31st, 2009
3:56 pm
I think we should tie the HOPE to a service program. Before students can get the money, they must serve full time in some form of services for 2 years. No income cap, just service requirement BEFORE they can get the benefit.
Jason
August 31st, 2009
3:57 pm
“If $100,000 was the cap, then a student whose parents are teachers would be ineligible for HOPE. Let’s say it is a family of four with two kids entering college, and both parents are veteran teachers.”
Why would a couple only making $100K a year have four kids? It’s irresponsible.
Nate
August 31st, 2009
3:57 pm
Mdowney, that may be true but I believe I applied for the same internet and local scholarships but received nothing. My brother was in the same situation. I think he got maybe $500. My point is that people act like getting a scholarship is a breeze these days. That is not correct and we all know it. Also, some people struggle on the SAT and ACT. I was one of those people. I simply could not take standardized tests well, but I finished like 19th in a class 500 students in high school. The SAT proves nothing about a student’s work ethic and character. Therefore, I went to a smaller school and then transferred to Tech.
Send All Worthy Graduates
August 31st, 2009
3:59 pm
If you pay state taxes, your child should be able to attend a state school. Period. This sense of entitlement from those who don’t need help is exactly why this country is messed up. We do not want an aristocracy in this country, but this is how it would be done.
Need based is the way to go on scholarships, and Affirmative Action, if you don’t need it to get in, you don’t get it. The Middle Class is shrinking folks. Look at the campus of UGA, it looks nothing like the state of Georgia. That is wrong and it will come back to bite us in the behind one day if we don’t fix it.
Send every student who graduates from an accredited school should be sent to college if s/he demonstrates an ability to do the work. We are competing on a global scale now in the 21st Century. Previous we could get away with a policy of mass exclusion of willingly students, but no longer. I fear for this state if all we do is keep sending upper-middle class and rich white kids to school. Poor and working class white kids and minority kids families pay taxes too and should have a place in the state’s school.
jim d
August 31st, 2009
3:59 pm
Mo,
Gotta dis with you–there is money out there if a kid will turn over the right rocks.
a lot of corporations have scholarship programs open to the general public, then there’s money available for certain areas of study, there are Military contracts, as well as the academys, in short there is a lot of private money available that goes untouched every year. Hope has at the very least stiffled young minds from searching and applying for these funds based soley on the eazze of getting the HOPE. Stop it from being an entitlement and you’s still have classrooms full of students–they would be studemts more capable perhaps of critical thinking.
Nate
August 31st, 2009
4:07 pm
Jim D, I have to disagree with you. First of all I assume you mean disagree by your first comment. Second, most students are looking for these scholarships but most are very restrictive. If your momma wasn’t in something (like some local chapter of something) and your dad wasn’t in something else you don’t qualify. And not to cause problems, but probably half of the scholarships presented to me to fill out my senior year were for non-whites. Now that is fine, but I personally believe that scholarships should be based on academic merit, community involvement, etc. The corporation scholarships are primarily for students with parents working for that company. Also, “you’s still have classrooms full of students” is totally off base. Universities across the state are at all time enrollment figures. Last, “based soley on the eazze” I think the only person needing some critical thinking skills is you.
Gamecock203
August 31st, 2009
4:09 pm
To those individuals who are protesting that HOPE is stealing from the poor to give to the middle-class, I ask…who is forcing individuals to buy lottery tickets? If individuals from lower income areas could establish their own “locally owned” college fund and put the money they spend on lottery tickets in that fund would they do it?
As for those who are against taking HOPE money away from Pre-K programs I encourage you to ask for data that supports the success of these programs. In the years since the program’s inception there is no research that shows it is a value to our kids. Perhaps a better use of that money would be to divert it to a need-based daycare program. It would cost less and keep the HOPE money going to advance the education of all kids who put forth the effort when it will actually be of value to them.
Finally, everyone needs to get off the class warfare bandwagon or Atlas will eventually shrug! And yes, if it continues many of us middle-class folks will work exhaustively to find ways to keep as much of our middle-class money in our communities as possible.
mdowney
August 31st, 2009
4:10 pm
Jim D; I think the notion that there’s unused scholarships is based on faulty data. This is from an interview with Clemson’s Marvin Carmichael, past Chairman of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators: http://www.petersons.com/common/article.asp?id=1673&path=ug.pfs.advice&sponsor=1
Myth 1: Billions of scholarship dollars go unclaimed
This one has been around since the word scholarship was invented. “I can’t get a handle on where it comes from,” says Carmichael. “It certainly is not from college financial aid offices.” As for Clemson, Carmichael says they seldom have scholarships that aren’t awarded, and if they do, it’s usually because of timing or highly restrictive eligibility requirements.
There might actually be billions of aid dollars that go unused, but it’s not due to a lack of unclaimed scholarships. This common myth fails to mention that employer-paid education benefits are included in that total, and out of all those supposedly unclaimed scholarships, employee benefits account for about 85 percent. In reality, the number of unused scholarships is much, much smaller.
jeff
August 31st, 2009
4:10 pm
mdowney,
I see that your children utilize the HOPE scholarship yet advocate a $100,000 income limit. You are free to decline HOPE but choose not to. Why is that?
Everyone should realize that they are discussing who has legitimate claim to corrupt funds. The GA Lottery is nothing but a government monopoly on gambling.
Rich
August 31st, 2009
4:20 pm
This is the reason that I thought the lottery was a bad idea and voted against it. When you start a program that will need funding based on something other than the revenue, you will run out of money. The lottery revenues should have been used on projects, not programs, that you know the cost upfront and have the money before you start. We should limit HOPE to In-state public schools.
A mom
August 31st, 2009
4:22 pm
You are correct – HOPE first had an income threshhold. I was one of the parents who protested this – I think at the time it was approximately $75,000. How far do you think that amount goes when you’re educating 3 children? Your idea that middle class children do not deserve this assistance makes me sick. Why should the children of hardworking, dual income families be penalized? Your idea is another case of giving more, more, more to the “underprivileged.” Give me a break. The middle class are the backbone of our society.
Rich
August 31st, 2009
4:27 pm
Why has the cost of college increased so much?
oldtimer
August 31st, 2009
4:27 pm
The newer research on pre-k is that by thrid grade those without pre-k have “caught up” with their peers. It is popular with parents and provides good child care.
HOPE was intended for ALL GA teenagers who earned it. Now, let’s make high schools more accountable with grades. Maybe counties should pay for students who have the HOPE and must take remedial classes.
maureen's accountability metric
August 31st, 2009
4:30 pm
From Maureen “Wouldn’t the state realize a larger return on its investment if it devoted its HOPE dollars to those students for whom it may well be the deal breaker?”
Given that playing the lottery is 100% an entirely voluntary “tax” if you will, I think it’s a legitimate question to ask.
I think it goes back to what Georgia voters were promised when the lottery was first purposed, and that bait and switch isn’t being used, as for example there seems to be a great temptation to do with Hwy 400 and keeping it a toll road, even though the original cost seems to be close to being paid off.
nowhereman
August 31st, 2009
4:32 pm
Rich, that’s so we can sell more lottery tickets.
maureen's accountability metric
August 31st, 2009
4:32 pm
How’s this for irony-another post lost, but this time a post that agreed that, at the very least, Maureen asked a legitimate question.
Ernest
August 31st, 2009
4:43 pm
common sense, you may want to check your history. Zell Miller introduced legislation for the lottery for HOPE in 1991, after he was inaugurated as governor. Many may not realize many the intangible benefits this scholarship brought to the state, especially in the area of jobs. We have legitimate concerns about our K-12 infrastructure as a whole but many feel we have some of the top research/higher education institutions in the country. This is evident by the recent rankings of top colleges/universities by various publications. What the ranking do not indicated is that many of the students at these schools are from Georgia. Can one make a circular assumption and say that perhaps our K-12 are doing better than we think given the kudos given to our colleges/universities?
Katy Johnston
August 31st, 2009
4:45 pm
I understand the calls to limit HOPE by income. If you think about it, who buys the main proportion of lottery tickets? It’s not the well off. But I still think that HOPE is keeping a lot of high school talent in Georgia – why else would UGA be shooting up the US News and College report rankings over the past decade? I don’t think limiting the income range is the way to save HOPE. We should be doing everything we can as a state to improve our educational system as a state, from elementary school to post-graduate programs – strengthen our Pre-K program, subsidize private tutoring for low income families (because C2’s private tutoring was invaluable in helping my son) and offer more advanced high school classes.