HOPE is diminishing. Parents told that scholarship money for books and fees likely to disappear due to shortfall
Books and fees are likely to be cut from the HOPE Scholarship as lottery proceeds fall short of the increased costs of the popular program.
I am glad to see some frank comments about the pressures on the HOPE Scholarship from a lawmaker. I went to the recent hearing on HOPE that state Rep. Len Walker, R-Loganville, convened and where he warned that HOPE was in trouble. He is bringing the same cautionary tale to the public.
At the hearing, Walker and other lawmakers predicted hard choices this year on HOPE, which is funded by the lottery. The lottery proceeds cannot keep up with the demands from HOPE Scholarships awarded to college students, HOPE grants given to technical school students and pre-k offered to the state’s 4-year-olds.
LOGANVILLE — The HOPE Scholarship might not be able to provide any money for textbooks or fees for next year’s college freshmen, state Rep. Len Walker, R-Loganville, told the Grayson High School PTSA on Thursday evening.
Georgia lottery revenues, which fund the HOPE Scholarship and the Georgia Pre-K programs, have been steadily climbing, but they aren’t growing fast enough, Walker said.
“The Georgia lottery is one of the best run lotteries in all the world. In my opinion, the lottery commission has done a commendable job,” Walker said. “The revenues have inched up … but the lottery revenues are not growing at a pace to keep up with the expenditures.”
Last year, the lottery revenues were about $881 million. The expenditures, however, totaled more than $1 billion. The state had to use a chunk of the lottery’s unrestricted reserves to make up the difference, Walker said.
Projections show the lottery revenues will stay relatively stagnant, while lottery expenditures will climb to more than $1.2 billion by fiscal year 2012, which begins in less than a year. That will deplete the unrestricted reserve, and the lottery’s other two reserves will drop to about $370 million — less than half of where they were at the beginning of this fiscal year.
Walker, the chairman of the House higher education committee, said he finds this alarming, but he assured parents the HOPE Scholarship isn’t going anywhere.
“It’s not going away,” Walker said, “… but some adjustments are going to have to be made. … This is an issue that has to be answered right now.”
Legislators will be examining a number of options when the General Assembly convenes in January, Walker said. Trigger mechanisms for benefit reductions in case of declining fund availability may have to be accelerated.
Currently, the HOPE Scholarship provides for the cost of tuition at a public college or university, pays for mandatory fees (capped at the January 2004 level) and gives students $150 per semester for books. It’s possible the book award and fee payments may be eliminated.
The program may also be amended so that people who have a bachelor’s degree cannot receive the HOPE Grant if they enroll in a technical college.
Loganville resident Leigh Ann Brandenburg, whose son is a senior at Grayson High, said the information is upsetting.
“He’s worked hard for (the past) three years, and I’d just hate for him to be penalized,” she said. “I think we can swing the room and board if his classes are paid for, but the economy has affected everyone. I don’t want him penalized for doing the right thing.”
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66 comments Add your comment
catlady
August 31st, 2010
8:07 am
Really amazed: aren’t those average scores/gpa’s? Are they REALLY required of ALL admittees?
Really amazed
August 31st, 2010
8:42 am
@catlady: I wish they were average SAT scores for both universities, however many of my friends that had children graduate this past year needed these min. scores to qualify to get in. Also, you can look on Collegeboard.com and see under SAT scores what the mid range would be, this would be the very beginning of mid. If you don’t have mid you aren’t going, A lot of my friend’s children did or didn’t get in and they told me what their children’s scores were that did and didn’t get in. These seem to be the magic numbers. Here is the kicker though… as for ALL admittes… For Georgia Tech if you were female from the high school graduating class trying to get in, you were much more favorable because of GA TECH trying to increase female pop. If you were a diversified female double bonues points!!! Diversified male and so on. Now granted some of these students will have high GPA and SAT scores, however some of them will still be admitted before a Caucasian male. This is the trend now so get us to it. Your truly high gpa not grade inflated male cauc. child will be put last. With HOPE possibly going to only income groups of less than $66,000 a year this will be even worse. Not so for the lower income, minorities. That will add even extra points to ones’ admit. This is the problem the truly gifted won’t be going unless they get a presidental scholarship or merit and even then I am sure they will somehow group that one too!!!
maloney, m
August 31st, 2010
9:32 am
There are many scholarships available to low-income and minority students. As for merit scholarships, these are truly competitive even for the smartest students. The original mission of Hope was not only to help those in need, it was also to “keep the academically superior student in state”. Many of our best students leave Georgia to attend North Carolina schools. Bottom line if you are a middle-class, non-minority student, you will have a tough time finding a scholarship if Hope implements a salary cap. Raise the GPA to 3.5, eliminate the book stipend. And let Hope be available to all academically superior students regardless of income or color. Also write the representatives that are going to be making these decisions.
bootney farnsworth
August 31st, 2010
10:43 am
remedial classes should not be taught at four year schools.
if you need remedial classes, that’s part of what two year
schools are for.
bootney farnsworth
August 31st, 2010
10:52 am
@ really
you really don’t want to know what’s actually going on in Ga higher ed were non white male recruitment is concerned. the USG will bend itself into knots to show how “diverse” they are, at the expense of what little common sense the system presidents have.
@ GPC for example, there is DECA, Leadership Academy, Black Male Initative, Gateway to College, the list is seemingly endless.
but if you’re a majority male student….
good luck.
Random Thought
August 31st, 2010
11:33 am
The minimum GPA required for HOPE should be raised to 3.2/4.0. HOPE should not be a low interest loan program or anything else of the sort, it should remain a SCHOLARSHIP program since it is called the HOPE SCHOLARSHIP / HOPE GRANT program. Require review after every semester. If you have an accumulative 3.0 you stay in the program, if not you are dropped until the next review at 30, 60, and 90 credits hours. Drop the book stipend because the average college student utilizes the stipend to help pay for the parts of tuition that is no longer covered, I know I did. Place an income cap at $125,001. If you have not saved for your child’s college expenses and you are making more than $150K (if you still have that job), you are just as irresponsible as the parents with lower incomes who take no part in their child’s education.
The SAT should not be tied to the HOPE program since I know of students who graduated from college with a 3.0+ GPA utilizing the HOPE scholarship continuously for all years who did not have a 1000/1600 or 1800/2400 SAT score. A SAT scores is not good an indicator of student abilities, it is just a good indicator to see if you can test well. If you are going to utilize tests for the HOPE program look at the individual’s entire high school testing history GHSGT, ECOT, ACT/SAT and any other exams to determine a student’s possibility of success in college.
For most students today even with working and taking out loans for college, if it wasn’t for HOPE they still would not be able to attend college. In the six years I was in college, the cost of tuition DOUBLED with new tuition increases awaiting incoming freshman.
@ another comment
The Pell Grant, SMART Grant, and ACT Grant are all federal grants/scholarships not state like HOPE. With the exception of the Pell Grant, the other two requires that the student maintain a 3.0/4.0 in their required classes for graduation. Pell requires the student maintain “Good Standing” academically since you can and will lose financial aid once you are on “Probation” and “Poor Standing” meaning that you will loose the grant. Students should not be ineligible for HOPE just because they have maintained their 3.0+ GPAs to qualify for other grants and scholarships and their parents have a low income.
Really amazed
August 31st, 2010
12:23 pm
@bootney, I can only imagine what, how and when our lovely gov’t and university systems are doing to make things look/appear to us outsiders! I could tell you stories about the airline industry as well. Another topic!!!! It is truly AMAZING what the public will believe!!!! We as the people of this great country need to caught a clue and WAKE UP!! I truly believe that a lot of parents try to act like they believe GA education is doing just fine. I believe that is how they are able to justify what they are not doing for the future of their own children. I hear it all the time from parents of public ed that we love so and so’s school, then ask the child… they will tell you they hate it and hate going to school. Very sad! Too much grade inflation has lead colleges to look more at SAT/
W. Thomas Kelley,Jr.
August 31st, 2010
12:41 pm
Living in upstate NY I don’t know much about the GA lottery. Personally, I think that all the various lotteries (every state) should be subjected to some kind of audit and the results should be published. Do YOU have any idea where the money actually goes?
Really amazed
August 31st, 2010
1:27 pm
@W.Thomas, the money is SUPPOSE to go a scholarship fund called HOPE for college bond students’ that have maintained a 3.0 avg. Most of those students have lost it the first year of college so makes you wonder where it goes after that!!!!!!!!!! We will NEVER truly know where it goes!!! The more mone GA education receives the worse the education has always gotten in GA. More money is not the answer for GA. The people of GA need to wake up. So many of them believe they should receive everything via the gov’t for free!!! Entitlement! Then again this is what the gov’t has done to it self!!
Pluto
August 31st, 2010
1:47 pm
The HOPE scholarship has become the middle and upper middle class entitlement and the source of many serious points of contention between parents and teachers. Parents know the deal and harass core curriculum teachers when their little Einsteins lose their B in a class. I teach physics and chemistry and I am expected to pass ‘em all but uphold a high standard. Huh??? I attribute the overall grade inflation to HOPE it was here before No Child Left in A Ditch.
Cissy
August 31st, 2010
2:23 pm
I agree with raising the high school GPA requirement and I have no problem making the kids pay for their books. Most people work harder if their own money is on the line.
I disagree with eliminating the pre-K, for reasons others have stated above: to teach eligible children skills that will help them be ready for a kindergarten classroom; and to offer the kids from homes where the parents are less educated some of the advantages they miss while very young: Did you know that children from homes where parents have at least one college degree between them hear, as babies and young children, a whole lot more different words used in the home than kids from homes with parents who don’t have degrees? And… studies cited in the New York Times Magazine, among other places, have shown repeatedly that the number of words kids hear as young children is an excellent predictor of how well they will learn to read later on. In fact, some researchers say it is the best predictor. If children from single-parent, watch-TV-a-lot homes can get more enrichment, earlier exposure to reading, etc., from a state-funded pre-K program, and thereby become better educated and perhaps better able to think and form their own opinions, then I’m for spending lottery money on it. We place way too much emphasis on college educations anyway… a lot of kids would be happier, and our society would be better served, if we enabled kids to get training in the crafts and trades that our economy is losing fast as current craftsmen and tradesmen age and retire.
Awful, Awful, Awful
August 31st, 2010
8:47 pm
Well DUH again……The Ga. Lottery sounds just like our federal government…..spending more than we take in. If you’ve only got so much money, cut it off when you’ve reached the limit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Really amazed
August 31st, 2010
10:08 pm
@Pluto, you are sooooo on target!!!!! Every parent wants the easy A it is becoming like the welfare system!!! Don’t work and still receive free/gov’t money. Entitlement all the way! Then they wonder why little Johnny grew up and is still living at home because he couldn’t get through college or get a decent job. Keep enabling these kids and see what happens!!! If only parents realized that little Johnny would be better off learning something that will help him get through college not just to it!!!!!! I will admit I have freaked out a few times myself and still do when my son brings home lower than expected grades, however if he always brought home A’s like he use to before high school than I would also realize that he must not be in challenging enough classes. He did bring home a few b’s last year but boy is his school truly preparing them for college. Teaching them how to study and learn not just inflate the grades. I joke around with him often and tell him he would have it so much easier if he were to go to the local public high school down the street. I laughed the other day when a friend told me… her daughter had to read a book over the summer and only had a study guide. I told her my son had to read four books and hopefully took good notes as they don’t even get a study guide. This is truly college prep. I told her they have trouble at first however, once use to it, they learn to take better notes. Just like in college. Am I off my rocker he might not get that perfect gpa but guess what?? The colleges know what is happening in Georgia public high schools with grade inflation and WILL look to see if that GPA adds up to the SAT/ACT score.
Warrior Woman
September 1st, 2010
1:44 pm
@Random Thought – Actually SAT scores predict college success (or at least freshman year success) very well. Since most that lose HOPE do so during their freshman year, a SAT requirement would be very helpful.
@Cissy – The people “teaching” the lottery-funded pre-K often do not have college degrees and aren’t using the variety of language to give the benefits you mention.
admin
September 1st, 2010
2:33 pm
DO y’all realize there is a difference between the HOPE scholarship and the HOPE grant? While y’all are spending your efforts trying to decide how some deserving students can be left out of the HOPE scholarship, there are thousands of students, at the technical colleges, who are raiding the HOPE grant, Many of these students become eligible for the grant after living in GA for one year (and it’s hell to prove it) and they are ineligible for the scholarship. After completing the diploma using the HOPE grant, they switch over the the Associates degree and only have to pay for few classes out of pocket. If that’s not a scam, then I don’t know what is. GSFC needs to look in this on.
Mike
September 7th, 2010
9:30 pm
Maybe if they spent the money for what it was intended instead of somebody’s pork project then the fund would be solvent…why would lottery funds pay for a 50 million dollar facility for Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta (All the while they beg for donations) or funding for museums in Augusta and Warner Robbins…let’s face it, the same thing that happened in Florida has happened here…the money should have been for college students ONLY…all you who want the students to reimburse $7,000.00…where do you think they will get that kind of money? Or mom’s and dad’s can just save up the money leading up to college…really? The cost of higher education is outrageous! it has risen higher in the last ten years than ANYTHING else…they charge a “fee” for everything imaginable…