Roy Barnes: Wrong solutions on HOPE Scholarship
Roy Barnes
I received this note from former Gov. Roy Barnes, who granted me permission to share it although he was aware that critics would jump in and accuse him of sour grapes or worse
As the first generation in my family to attend college, I share Barnes’ concern that the changes in HOPE will hurt kids who do not come from a family with strong education backgrounds.
I also think the 3.7 GPA to get Full HOPE and the 3.5 to keep it is steep, considering that the average GPA for the students in Georgia Tech’s Honors Program is below 3.5. (The average GPA in the Honors Program at Tech is 3.34 for the Class of 2011 and 3.37 for the Class of 2012. )
Please, be respectful in comments as I am going to be en route to Athens and my editor hates to play traffic cop in my absence.
From the former governor:
A message from exile where grandchildren and cows rule the day. I can’t believe what we have done to HOPE. Did there need to be a change made to HOPE? Without a doubt, but what we are doing is the wrong solution. The answer would have been to go back to the original plan for HOPE. Available to those with a family income of $75k for a single parent and $150k for two parents.
Now, to get the full ride for HOPE you have to have a 3.7 GPA and a 1200 SAT. This favors kids who come from affluent families. As a first generation college graduate I know first generation kids generally score lower on the SAT and that is generally from family circumstances. Children in non college families don’t get exposed early to the breadth of learning as kids from college graduate homes.
My children scored significantly higher on SAT than their mother or me, and their children will score even higher. What we have done is give HOPE to the affluent families who can already afford to send their kids to college, and deprive poorer white and black kids an opportunity to break out. Bad policy.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
164 comments Add your comment
The HOPE scholarship and a Democratic policy of engagement | Political Insider
February 26th, 2011
3:01 pm
[...] That’s not a formula beneficial to young African-Americans, who often perform more poorly on standardized tests. “What we have done is give HOPE to the affluent families who can already afford to send their kids to college, and deprive poorer white and black kids an opportunity to break out. Bad policy,” former Gov. Roy Barnes wrote to his contacts. [...]
arubalisa
February 26th, 2011
3:17 pm
Thank you Springdale Park Elementary Parent. Research university students will have a salary commensurate with the ability to repay the 1% student loans under the new state program. If any college graduate has difficulty paying off 1% loans once they are in the work force, perhaps they made the wrong career choice. And as we told our 15 yo dd, room and board is a privilege and not a right. Where does it say that a child MUST “go away” to college. If you are worried about the expense of college, go to a local school and commute.
justin
February 26th, 2011
7:19 pm
@ td,
Race and poverty are not the same issue, BUT a much higher percentage of minority are indeed poor. Institutional racism IS real. Teacher quality is typically poorer for the schools attended by a large number of poor and minority students. Students cannot choose their teachers. There is not enough Jaime Escalantes out there. Yes, each student has his/her own responsibility for learning. But, a student cannot just learn math, science, history, English, foreign language, etc. on his/her own by simply reading books. If so, we don’t need schools, and definitely not teachers.
I Really do Teach!
February 26th, 2011
7:38 pm
Response to Clusters: I really do not understand the purpose of individuals such as yourself deliberately using such comments as “we was”, etc. This is an exceedingly important issue and people like you really are not interested in seeking out ways to solve the problems we currently face here in Georgia that affect so many of us throughout our state. I am so tired of this negative environment that targets our educational system whether it be those of who teach, those of us who are parents of those who attend our schools, those of us who want a better life for our children, etc. What on earth has happened to civility or just common decency in our state and our country?
mike
February 26th, 2011
8:05 pm
What’s the problem. The goobers voted this governor and his people in and this is what happens. The HOPE program was originally just that. Low-income with good grades but no money. Now HOPE is for kids from the best schools whose college education is paid for by all the middle and low income people who buy the lottery tickets. This is what the repubs in this state have long worked for. I glad they have tackled this problem. Next they can continue to avoid the status of new jobs in this state.
Magny
February 26th, 2011
10:59 pm
I agree with the SAT requirement b/c it’s one of the best predictors of college success. I don’t agree with the GPA because that punishes kids who take harder courses.
MB
February 27th, 2011
11:23 am
Has the legislature considered the effect this will have on students taking the more rigorous courses in high school (and therefore their level of preparation for college)? They removed the honors points from consideration for HOPE because their use was too inconsistent across school systems. With all the data now available, surely they can determine for which schools honors classes are significantly more difficult. If they don’t recognize this in some way, taking a difficult schedule and having the 3.7GPA may be impossible for some students.
As the system is set now, no honors points are given for honors classes. There is no comparison between the expectations in regular 10th grade lit and 10th honors lit at our local high school. A student who ends up with an 89 has done far more difficult (and superior) work than someone with even a 99 in regular lit. However, one will have a 4.0 and the other a 3.0 for HOPE.
Even AP and joint enrollment only get “half-credit” for the rigor of the course. Compare regular chem and AP Chem – VERY different. If a student ends up with an 89 in AP Chem, they have a 3.5 for HOPE.
Pressure on teachers to inflate grades – meaning the quality of graduates declines – can only increase with this scenario. Students in college don’t have the “recovery” (e.g., extra credit) options.
duh
February 27th, 2011
1:56 pm
What? You mean…the Republicans did something to disenfranchise the less fortunate and help their wealthy constituents?
*Gasp*
Oh wait, this is what they do all the time…
after all, here in the USA we only really care about the wealthy anyways.
Georgia as a state is completely dysfunctional (glad I left for Virginia) and Roy Barnes isn’t blameless in that but he is dead right on these changes. Republicans always look out for the wealthy, and this should come as no surprise.
duh
February 27th, 2011
2:00 pm
MB:
Honors points typically get added on by the high schools. So AP classes students pass (and IB) get a +5 bump that universities acknowledge, but self-styled “honors” courses don’t. Outside of the programs not recognized by the University Board of Regents (like a private school’s honors or a magnet school’s program) don’t get extra consideration. That’s how it was when I graduated last year.
Not PC
February 27th, 2011
2:23 pm
What good ole Roy forgets is that $150,000 in a state with some of the worst public schools in the nation doesn’t go very far when you have to pay for private school. I not only pay property taxes to send my children to public school, but I also pay to send them to private school. I insist that their education be taken seriously, and their grades and SAT scores reflect their hard work. The reason we don’t use the public schools is the lack of parental involvement and the welfare moms who park their kids there and don’t even bother to feed them breakfast, lunch or see that homework is done. Most don’t even show up for teacher conferences. There is no way that these children are prepared to go to the top universities in our state. I am sorry that this is the case, but they should look to their parents rather than the taxpayers, as to why this is. Unfortunately, with the welfare state that we have created, their parents will only be able to blame the government for their own and their childrens’ lack of success. As a healthcare worker, I see mother after mother giving birth to her 5th, 6th, 7th child by her mid twenties with absolutely no concern for how she will provide anything. Then, that same mother wants to know why she can’t “get ahead”. Duh! One of the few rewards that those of us forced to fund their stupidity receive is a decent college education in our state for children who have worked hard. If that reward is taken away and our good students flee to out-of-state schools, who will be left to foot the bill for the welfare mothers who continue to breed at an alarming rate and populate our public schools with unwanted, hopeless children?
Confused and Bewildered
February 27th, 2011
3:11 pm
Many of the comments in this blog illustrate why this country is in a predicament. Dems slam repubs. Repubs slam dems. Liberals slam conservatives. Conservatives slam liberals. And, nobody, Reps, Dems, liberals or conservatives talk about the real issue – personal responsibility. When did it become someone else’s responsibility to pay for your child’s education?
Parents work, children work and with a helping hand from the HOPE everyone wins. You are acting as if the HOPE is gone. A student who leaves HS with a 3.0 and keeps a 3.0 through college will get 90% of his/her tuition paid at a public college or university. If you work extra hard and earn a 3.75 in HS and keep a 3.5 during college, you’ll get 100%. That isn’t too shabby! That’s what Zell Miller intended – reward for hard work.
I didn’t get one dime from the government. There was no HOPE when I attended college. And back in my day if you graduated from a Georgia HS with honors, you’d earned it.
Shut up the d…. whining! Study hard and work hard and life isn’t tough at all – that goes for parents and student alike!!!
Hubert Mazzawi
February 27th, 2011
3:50 pm
Good students will be left out! Factor in the family income first! Anyone with any common sense will realize this unfairly penalizes those the Hope was created to help. !!!
MB
February 27th, 2011
5:56 pm
duh
Yes, that’s my point: “self-styled” honors courses vary from district to district (not by school) as do the number of honors points awarded. However, in north Fulton at least, honors classes are much more difficult as the norm than on-level classes. I worked at a high school for the previous 6 years and there was a shift in students taking all honors/AP to some regular classes when HOPE stopped acknowledging honors points. I fear that the shift will move even further now – and that’s NOT in the interest of graduating students best prepared to move into rigorous college programs.
I don’t understand this, however: “Outside of the programs not recognized by the University Board of Regents (like a private school’s honors or a magnet school’s program) don’t get extra consideration.” The ONLY courses awarded the half point are AP, IB and joint enrollment.
And the credit isn’t even tied to AP or IB scores – e.g., get an A in an AP course and it doesn’t matter if you don’t make a passing grade on the AP or IB exam, you will get a 4.5. (But if you make an 89 and get a 5 on the AP exam, you get a 3.5… how accurate is THAT correlation?)
Light
March 1st, 2011
2:01 pm
I’m somewhat disappointed in the decision made in the House today to pass the legislation without any further consideration regarding income caps or the children that will be out of the running because of the changes…my child qualifies for HOPE in case anyone thinks this is a parent whose child will lose out. But the bigger picture is that HOPE appears to be more for the ELITE and not truly those who could benefit from the financial assistance. While 90% is not a lot, we all know that each year, the percentage will change till the program just dissipates. One positive is that for kids who really want to go to college, they will work harder to have a high gpa or find alternative funding. My parents/family did not pay not one cent for me and I put myself through undergrad and grad so I understand the premise of hard work to accomplish what you want but I agree with former Gov. Barnes, that this is bad policy for the state and our children.