HOPE Scholarship could shrink even more in 2014 as lottery funds fail to meet demand
Yikes. The AJC is reporting possible deeper cuts to HOPE starting with the fall semester in 2014. While HOPE once covered all tuition costs and some books and fees, it now covers 80 to 90 percent of tuition and no books and fees.
As I said in my first blogs about HOPE Lite last year: Start doubling up on those college savings as HOPE may eventually only cover the gas to Athens.
Earlier today, Tim Connell, president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission, gave legislators a grim outlook. To prevent further erosion of HOPE in 2014, Connell said the state would need an additional $107 million for the 2014 fiscal year.
According to the AJC:
The gap is expected to increase to $163 million by 2016, Connell told a joint economic development committee of the Legislature on Monday. Lottery revenue is projected to remain flat, and more students are expected to be entering colleges and be eligible for awards through HOPE.
Gov. Nathan Deal and lawmakers overhauled the popular scholarship last year, reducing payouts to prevent the program from running out of money. While Connell said those changes helped, the new rules include a provision over the use of reserves that would lead to a drop in the scholarship amount. The new rules require reserves to remain at a certain level, but the commission uses this money to supplement the funding provided by the Georgia Lottery. Reserves are large enough now that the commission can tap into that money to keep scholarship payments at the same level for the 2013 fiscal year. But starting in 2014, HOPE will have to rely just on lottery revenue, Connell said.
A drop in award payouts combined with expected increases in tuition and fees will result in students having a larger out-of-pocket expense for college.S While Georgia’s lottery is considered one of the most successful in the nation, it can’t keep up with soaring enrollment and tuition. More than 256,000 students received HOPE last year, while fewer than 200,000 received it a decade ago. “I’m not sure we can ever meet the demand doing what we’re doing currently,” said Margaret DeFrancisco, CEO of the Georgia Lottery.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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92 comments Add your comment
carlosgvv
January 9th, 2012
8:20 pm
It looks as though eventually only the rich will be able to send their children to college. This just adds to the perception that the middle-class is under an all-out assault from the rich. One way or another money will always win.
teacher reader
January 9th, 2012
8:24 pm
No other state that I know of has HOPE. It has become an entitlement program, with parents demanding grades for their high school students to receive this money, whether the students deserve the grades or not. It’s lead parents to call college professors demanding grades for their students and for students to down grade professors who actually make them work for their grade. In my eyes HOPE is part of what has ruined the education system in Georgia. It should be scraped and let parents and children pay for their own child’s education. An education is not a right and is a true privilege, something that many in America have forgotten.
InEd
January 9th, 2012
8:54 pm
jettison Bright From the Start and return the funds to HOPE which was the original design.
Sam
January 9th, 2012
9:09 pm
The core of the problem is the out of control tuition costs which have escalated beyond reason at our four year schools. Time for the regents to rein in the expenses.
Prof
January 9th, 2012
9:30 pm
The core of the problem is that the students’ tuition doesn’t pay the full cost of their education, and the state legislature keeps cutting the funding they allot to the USG schools. Next year there will be at least a 2% cut…again. What are the schools supposed to do, but raise tuition? Don”t blame the faculty—we haven’t had a raise for 4, going on 5 years. And each year the student enrollments rise. The schools are expected to do more on less money than the year before.
EC Mom
January 9th, 2012
9:33 pm
@teacher reader…I don’t know about other states, but Florida has a similar lottery funded program, the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. They have two scholarship levels and a vo-tech program, if I recall correctly. The top level award requires a 3.5 GPA, plus 1270 SAT or 28 ACT. B level students can still earn a scholarship, but it is not as much money as the top students get. I think with HOPE too many people want the best of both worlds – 100% tuition and not very high standards to qualify (3.0 GPA and no min SAT or ACT) as far as merit scholarships go – and the funds to do that are just not there. Personally, I would like to see HOPE set up more like Florida’s program. Florida’s program has faced cuts, too, though, because tuition there is also rising.
Free in-state tuition is not an entitlement. Parents and students do indeed need to plan ahead in case HOPE is cut or eliminated. My children are not in college yet. We are not counting on HOPE, but if it helps reduce our college expenses we will be grateful whatever the amount.
td
January 9th, 2012
9:51 pm
carlosgvv
January 9th, 2012
8:20 pm
Who is the middleclass? What is their salary range? Why have they not put away some money for their children to go to college? What is wrong with a child going to a local college with a job to help pay for the cost?
ScienceTeacher671
January 9th, 2012
10:01 pm
I’m not buying any more lottery tickets until the Lottery Corporation is required to pay its full percentage to education.
I don’t know how many people feel that way, but I think many people are disgusted because the money is supposed to go to education, but it hasn’t been.
Shannon
January 9th, 2012
10:28 pm
As a college instructor (and grad student), I partially agree with teacher reader. Yes, HOPE is partially responsible for grade inflation; however, that’s no reason to entirely jettison the program. Rather, take measures to fight the grade inflation. It should be possible for students to work for HOPE and receive it, emphasis on *work*. If coasting students were eliminated from the program and grade inflation reined in, then far fewer students would be taking advantage of it–and those who did could get the free rides they’ve earned.
ScienceTeacher671
January 9th, 2012
10:29 pm
* Disclaimer: I never bought all that many lottery tickets to start with, but when I did, I rationalized that at least the money was going for education. NOW I know it’s mostly going to pay bonuses for GLC personnel.
A reader
January 10th, 2012
12:28 am
My daughter will go to college. I have always planned for that. HOPE would be nice, but I always viewed it like social security — nice to have but don’t count on it or you will be eating cat food.
One positive about the reduction in HOPE is that it will makes me feel better when my daughter chooses to go to an out of state college.
MM
January 10th, 2012
3:02 am
As a professor in the University System I have personally had the experience of teaching entering freshmen and other underclassmen. Over the years, it has been my business to judge the quality of achievement of these students as part of my position. Much has changed in just the last ten years, mostly not for the better, and HOPE has much to do with it here in Georgia. And the main problem is not low-income students coming from poorly-performing public high schools.
My observation is that many of University System students, at least as the mid-sized school with which I am familiar, will never make it to graduation. The graduation data clearly shows this is true. Students often do not know what to do with themselves after high school but face a very bad labor market and need somewhere to tap dance until something turns up for them. Many admit this as the truth. But poorly motivated students are not at the heart of the problem, either.
The professors I work with know this but we teach and fail an alarming number especially in foundation courses. Why does this go on?
The failure-bound students churn through a pile of HOPE funds for a couple of years and then leave, disappointed and effectively abused by the System. The dirty truth is that the University System schools are simply greedy for the HOPE funds. Look at the schools that have added expensive football teams in the past 2 years; Georgia State and the West Georgia among them. You can buy a lot of hoopla with the taxpayer’s money.
Here’s a thought. Make the mission of the HOPE program be to allow students who otherwise might not be able to afford a college education go and require the higher income family’s students to fend for themselves. Rich and poor get to have a shot at going to school this way. None of this unnecessary 50% HOPE cut by 2015 business. Make it a needs-based program for lower income students instead of a “warm-body” program for upper and high-income families. It’s a tragedy that much of the taxpayer’s money has gone to supplement the income of higher income families. Many low-income students will not be able to go to school if severe cuts happen but the rich never needed HOPE and will still go to college.
The politics of this are tough and account for how HOPE got the way it is. Too many dysfunctional compromises to get a broad political consensus have been made. Throwing money at the problem is bankrupting HOPE, wasting many hundreds of millions of dollars over time, and not serving most students well.
The University System schools should acknowledge this terrible problem which is bringing the HOPE program to its knees and then do something about it. Stop grade inflation just to keep students in school long enough to pick their financial bones clean. Retention is an acknowledged problem but let’s stop pretending it’s all the fault of poor high schools or somehow we must teach them better by holding their interests with technology or more entertaining classes. Motivated students do not need those gimmicks.
HOPE costs are skyrocketing because the program intentionally fleeces the families of unprepared, and often unmotivated, students. HOPE funds have allowed too many silly rockwalls to be built just so schools can be more competitive at luring new students, many of them paying higher out-of-state fees without the HOPE funds. Instead, focus HOPE money on helping the low-income students, at least the motivated ones, graduate. There’s a multigenerational payoff that will recoup the State’s investment and more. Currently, HOPE has a poor return on investment and the future looks worse.
I know it’s very, very difficult to distinguish the students who care enough about getting a degree to overcome any education deficits they may have and then work to really learn and earn the degree. Give students 1, maybe 2, semesters to get with it and then do the painful task of helping them to redirect their life efforts to something more suitable for them. But don’t just keep them around 2-3 years just to soak up their HOPE bucks and then let them down with no degree.
Burdell
January 10th, 2012
5:08 am
As a student of the Georgia Institute of Technology, I see the HOPE scholarship as an excellent program which rewards hard work with financial benefits. Statistically speaking, the students that can keep HOPE will earn more in their lifetime and hopefully bring more revenue for the state. The primary reason that HOPE funds need to be spread more thinly is that there are more eligible candidates due to grade inflation. Its not that GT gives out high grades, but there has been school-wide GPA increase since the initiation of the HOPE. This will require a restructuring of the program. I’d suggest a raise in the GPA requirements. With this policy, HOPE is guaranteed; it just might require a bit more work
. I assume that this is the case with other schools in Georgia, but I’m not sure.
Note: I am an out of state student.
parent with HS senior
January 10th, 2012
7:04 am
If the retention rates are ao low as MM says, why not recoup the funds if the student fails? Upon dropout, the failed student gets an automatically generated student loan that repays the Hope funds. This would make the unmotivated and unfocused students(and there parents) think twice before entering college. The current system promotes a low cost trail period before realizing the kid is not cut out for college. If the child graduates then the hope funds stand. If they drop out, then they have student loans that must be repaid. Using this method, Hope will not be wasting good money on the non focused kids that are using it as an almost free ride.
Mike
January 10th, 2012
7:05 am
What? Yet another government sponsored program that is failing? Shocker.
How many times has it been suggested...
January 10th, 2012
7:15 am
Make HOPE a loan-forgiveness program. Students make good grades, then the loan is paid off. Students don’t make the grades, they have to pay back a low interest student loan.
Dr NO / Mr Sunshine
January 10th, 2012
7:21 am
Loan Forgiveness? I like that. So if Dr NO takes out a 72 month loan on a Porsche Carrera and I make the first 36 payments on time could I be forgiven for the remainder?
I like, I really like it? Same would apply to houses, YOUR Rooms to go furniture, fish bowls etc.
Someone has on their thinking cap this a.m.
Old School
January 10th, 2012
7:54 am
Why not have HOPE kick in when students are in their junior and senior years in college. That’s when the majority are taking courses in their majors and not the core classes (or whatever they’re called these days). That might separate the serious degree-seeking from the not so serious. HOPE could still pay for technical courses as they are usually 2 year programs anyway. I’d also like to see lottery funding of technology in elementary schools cut WAY back and in middle schools cut in half. Our kids don’t even master the basics but boy howdy! can they ever google!
teacher
January 10th, 2012
7:56 am
This program was doomed from the onset.
Why didn’t people see that?
We opened this program wide to all who would like to go to school and gave limitless amounts of money.
The pre-k program grew without check- even shabby houses were turned into worlds of learning under the auspices of PRE-K.
Then, the golf hall of fame was purchased with these funds.
So, why is anyone surprised?
I heard Sonny Perdue speak to this issue before he was ever governor and he said it would become an entitlement program in Ga that we would all end up having to pay for.
This program has hurt schools, teaching, and kids. With the pressures of having to maintain a certain GPA, teachers have been strong-armed into giving grades.
Kids are no smarter having gone through the HOPE paid college program than they were before.
Shar
January 10th, 2012
8:06 am
MM, for someone who purports to be from a University System school, you are remarkably poorly informed.
TAXPAYERS DO NOT FUND THE HOPE PROGRAM. No “taxpayer’s [sic] has gone to supplement the income of higher income families.” HOPE is entirely lottery-funded, and was approved by Georgia voters as a means of upgrading technology and teacher training for K12 schools, funding universal PreK and providing college scholarships to Georgia schools for every resident student who had a minimum 3.0 high school GPA and maintained it in college.
The first of these missions was jettisoned early on. The second, universal PreK, does in fact subsidize the dependent children of middle and upper income Georgians, but political pressure last spring spared it from the level of cuts that the college scholarship component suffered and it has become a de facto daycare entitlement.
The third, the scholarships, go to resident college students who may or may not be supported to some degree by their parents. There are many, many scholarships and loan programs that are directed to lower-income students and which are not available to students from more affluent homes (regardless of whether their parents pay their expenses). HOPE was specifically designed to be available to all high-achieving students regardless of their parents’ financial resources, and was approved by the voters as such.
The problem with HOPE is, as you suggest, that far too many students qualify academically (grade inflation has boosted this number astronomically) but not from a social or character perspective. It has become a funding source for a year of goofing off before being forced out of college to figure something else out. In addition, legislators have depended upon HOPE providing funding for secondary education in the state and have slashed their support drastically over the past decade, re-directing money to pet projects and leaving it to the Regents to raise tuition and a raft of bogus “fees” (which are actually tuition but called something else so that tuition increases do not look as horrific as they are) which were conveniently covered by HOPE.
The bills have come due, and – as you demonstrate – students are being blamed for the profligacy of others. Deal’s changes to the program were wrongheaded and unfair in nearly every respect.
First, the program should be changed to a reimbursement format, with low-interest loans available to lower-income students to help cover the first semester. If students (and their parents, if their parents financially participate) were required to show academic achievement before their tuition bills were paid, rather than after, they would be much more likely to approach their classwork seriously and address the motivation issue you find so crucial. The students who want to party would not be able to do so on the HOPE dime, and would no longer drain the resources of the program.
Second, funding for the University System should be restored to a sustainable level. Legislators and Regents should be held to strict limits on tuition and fee increases – no more routine 15% hikes plus hidden costs – so that students can plan costs and our lawmakers can no longer treat HOPE as a slush fund.
Third, a realistic minimum score on the SAT or ACT should be added for HOPE eligibility. A nationallly-normed test cannot be inflated the way that high school GPAs now routinely are, and there must be an objective measure of mastery to reserve program funding for those students who are truly ready to excel in college-level classes.
Finally, as so many on this blog have said, the Lottery Corporation must be held to the return that was originally mandated by the Legislature. They have never come close to turning over the percentage that they are legally supposed to provide, instead spending far more on bonuses and other incentives to fight off alleged personnel raiding by other lotteries. This is a hollow excuse that the Legislature has permitted to go on and on, and needs to stop immediately.
There is no evidence that the lower-income students you espouse will make more effective use of HOPE funds than do students from more affluent homes – in fact, there is a significant body of evidence that refutes that assertion. The answer is not favoring one group over the other. HOPE should be reserved for students who are smart, prepared and motivated to work hard, and who are willing to prove it before they receive funds. It should be fully funded to the level mandated by the voters and their representatives and it should be protected from encroachment by a Legislature hungry for funding their separate priorities.
Cynic
January 10th, 2012
8:17 am
I remember reading several stories (unrelated to HOPE) where a successful student had only spent his/her senior H.S. year in Georgia. One foreign student was living with an aunt, who suddenly had legal guardianship at 17 years old. The parents were mentioned in the story–so they were still living. Has the system left itself open for this kind of abuse?
Get rid of Pre K funding
January 10th, 2012
8:35 am
I never understood why Pre K 4 was included in the Lottery. Pre K 4 is nothing but a baby sitting job. I had two childern and we did not use the funding for our kids. Get rid of the funding for Pre K
what_what
January 10th, 2012
8:56 am
No one here is really discussing one of the main culprits, which is the spiraling cost of higher education.
Student loans cannot be excused under bankruptcy. One of the few items that can’t. So there is no risk to lenders to make loans to students. Its quite crazy. So student loan money is relatively easy to get, so universities know that and prices go up, then loan amounts go up, and its a big circle jerk.
If bankruptcy laws were changed so that student loan debt was now discharged, student loans would be priced based on market forces and the risk of the borrower paying back the money. You want a loan for med school? We know there is a good chance you’ll make money and be a good credit risk. You want to study art history? Well, the job market isn’t that great so we will loan you the money but at 15% a year. Right now money is loaned with no risk of failure to repay; the universities know that so rates go up.
Don’t blame the playa, blame the game.
God Bless the Teacher!
January 10th, 2012
9:07 am
parent with HS senior hit it on the head! How hard is it for the Legislature to see the HOPE “loan” option is the best way to go? Heck, with as many students who drop out of college when they lose HOPE, the HOPE-L program would generate enough money to pay full costs for those taking college seriously. Maybe enough to pay for some to go through graduate school.
Scotland doesn’t charge for students to go to college at all. However, they have to pass A-level exams to get there. What do the NAEP countries do financially for their post-secondary students? Again, those students have been weeded out earlier so the best ones actually advance to university level.
To Teacher Reader from Good Mother
January 10th, 2012
9:08 am
Teacher Reader, you claim Hope is an entitlement program? REALLY?
You think it is welfare? You are comparing earning good grades and scholarly activities with welfare?
Teacher Reader, you need a lesson. I had a merit scholarship. It paid for my tuition. I still had to live so I had jobs and worked my butt off in order to graduate…in six years. I also had a grant and student loans that took me ten years to pay off.
…and this was back in the days before tuition skyrocketed.
The real injustice here is the skyrocketed and skyrocketing cost of a college education. The cost increases make no sense. They aren’t tied to anything like fuel prices.
What is at fault here is the government allowing state schools to become unaffordable to those who can do the work. Every American citizen who works hard and makes the grade deserves a college education, not just for the rich who can afford it.
Teacher Reader, you are way out of line. I am appalled at the very suggestion that you want to prevent kids from getting an education. You need to go crawl back under that moldy, nasty rock you’ve been living under and stay away from innocent children.
To Get Rid of Pre K from Good Mother
January 10th, 2012
9:16 am
Hi Get Rid,
You say Pre K is just a babysitting job and you didn’t use it. It is very obvious you didn’t use it. It’s also wise to shut your pie hole when you don’t know what you are talking about.
My children attended a GA lottery funded preK. The curriculum was identical to my children’s APS kindergarten curriculum. The only difference between Pre K and Kindergarten is that in Pre K you get a nap and the school day ends one hour earlier.
My children leanred their letters, numbers, the calendar, social studies, coins and so on.
Studies have shown over and over ad nauseum that EARLY intervention is the key to academic success. We don’t want to wait until third grade to address the reason Sally or Sammy can’t read.
You can spend $500 for pre K or spend $50,000 for a jail. Think long and hard before you make your decision.
outsider
January 10th, 2012
9:36 am
To Teacher Reader from Good Mother — The state government isn’t “allowing” the universities to become unaffordable, it is forcing them to become unaffordable. The per student funding from the state is at early 1990s levels now, and that is not adjusted for inflation. Add in the effects of inflation, and tuition/fees have to go up substantially just to stay even. Legislators will acknowledge that it’s easier to cut higher ed than other areas, because the universities have the ability to raise tuition. Add that fact to the huge drop in tax revenue because of the recession, and this is what you get. It’s really an indirect privatization of the universities.
catlady
January 10th, 2012
9:37 am
Shar, taxpayers DO subsidize the kids on HOPE. HOPE pays only a small percentage of the actual cost of putting on the classes–something like a third. The other 2 thirds of the costs are borne by the taxpayers for ever kid, HOPE or not, in college. So if HOPE causes unprepared kids to go to “try it out”, taxpayers lose.
I think it is Past High Time for a mandatory SAT/ACT score to get HOPE. THAT would separate the ready from the hopeful. You can’t pressure a teacher to “give” you a 1000/1600 SAT (math and reading only). It would address the uneven nature of grading from high school to high school.
Get rid of the HOPE payments to private colleges.
I think turning HOPE into a loan afte the fact would be difficult, legally.
Since the lottery isn’t doing so well, CUT OUT ALL bonuses to lottery staff immediately. After all, that was the “reason” they get such ungodly high pay and bonuses.
Finally, the lottery corp must pay ALL the percentage of money to HOPE, and start repaying the millions over the years that it shorted the program.
Pizza
January 10th, 2012
9:54 am
I heard the Lottery Commission is far behind in HOPE payments. They don’t care about education. (Just another shameful situation in the state bureaucracy.) ” PLAY ON GEORGIA ! “
Pizza
January 10th, 2012
9:56 am
Shar, SCAP supports your efforts !
catlady
January 10th, 2012
10:18 am
One other thing, Shar. HOPE was NOT originally designed to be available to any income high achieving student. Originally, there was an income limit on the top AND on the BOTTOM! “Everyone” knows about the cap on the higher-income families, but few seem to realize that initially poor kids could not get HOPE. If they got full Pell, no HOPE. So a poor kid might have had a 4.0 but not gotten HOPE, and a middle class kid (~$80,000 income) with a 3.0 did get HOPE. Do we want to go back to the original?
Steve
January 10th, 2012
10:23 am
Cat Lady – Sending academically “gifted” kids to private colleges actually SAVES the state money. Yes, SAVES the state money. Let me use my son as an example. He graduated 5th in his class and qualified for Zell Miller. He had his pick of state schools and chose a small private institution instead. He gets only $4,000 dollars a year from the lottery funds. Had he picked UGA the bill for the taxpayers of Georgia would have been over double that. We keep talented students in state. And at a reduced rate. It is a MYTH that cutting Hope funds to private colleges saves the the state money.
theight
January 10th, 2012
10:23 am
If not for the Lottery program sending thousands of students to college we would be one of the poorest States in the country. Most professional jobs require at least a bachelor’s degree and well over 50% new graduates that work in hospitals, clincs, banks, Schools, etc in this state all received some portion of Hope or another scholarship. I’m sure less than 10% of parents can afford to pay out of their pockets. Tuition is way too high. especially with so many notherners migrating here.
Tony
January 10th, 2012
10:27 am
My wife is going to a local 2 yr college and hope doesnt pay not much of the freight.When you add books and the “fees”. She is nickle and dimed to death. Like paying a lab fee but you have to bring your own latex gloves and goggles, having to bring your own scantron sheets. Its like now they know school is the needed the path to a job and they are going to make it hurt.
This is the first year college loan debt is greater than credit card debt. FYI all the countries we are competing with in the global market, college is close to free or it is free.
THE LOTTERY IS MAKING A KILLING
January 10th, 2012
10:34 am
I believe in the HOPE Scholarship, but what it has become now is a big disappointment. Not EVERY parent can afford to send their child(ren) to college, WHY? Because they are to busy spending money only little things like FOOD, SHELTER, HEALTHCARE, UTILITIES, ETC. For the parent that are able to afford to pay for their child’s education, GOOD FOR YOU. But, DON’T put other parents down that aren’t as fortunate. I hate nothing more than an arrogant rich person rubbing the noses of those that are NOT as fortunate in the ground. You must remember, though, those that go must eventually come down. And if you happen to be a WEALTHY parent, me & other hardworking parents are paying YOUR taxes. The State would rather spend more money on sending kids to prison than to college. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
THE LOTTERY IS MAKING A KILLING
January 10th, 2012
10:36 am
The Lottery is breaking records with all of the money it is making, but who benefits, the employees of the GA. State Lottery Commmission, WHY? Because we are in a recession & more people are playing the lottery. There is NOTHING the employees have done to deserve a raise, GIVE THAT MONEY TO THE KIDS TRYING TO GET IN COLLEGE LIKE IT WAS MEANT TO BE!!!
Ronin
January 10th, 2012
10:40 am
HOPE was doomed from the beginning. The available funding created a larger supply of students and greater demand for services. When services are in demand, price goes up. The increase in college tuition has increased multiples of inflation, yet people continue to flock to higher education because of the long standing myth, unless you have a college degree, you can’t be successful.
The college education system is just another business model that requires funding and creates more jobs to keep people busy. The sad fact is, much of the information taught in college should be learned in k-12 classes.
Dr. Ron Paul 2012
January 10th, 2012
10:43 am
This is your HOPE…
…and Change…
L O L !
Tired of reading Ignorance
January 10th, 2012
10:59 am
@Shar and others on this comment page! Check your sources and check them well. The Georgia Lottery Corporation NO LONGER RECEIVE BONUSES OR INCENTIVES! It has been over a YEAR SINCE BONUSES WERE DISTRIBUTED! Now What!
What's Best for Kids???
January 10th, 2012
11:05 am
Once again, we could do something like make it a reimbursement program. Kid gets a 3.9, kid gets the next semester paid for…Wait. That’s too easy. No government official would go for THAT!
What's Best for Kids???
January 10th, 2012
11:06 am
Kid gets a 3.0 not a 3.9..
Paulo977
January 10th, 2012
11:07 am
carlosgvv
re:One way or another money will always win.
_______________________
And there we are preaching JUSTICE FOR ALL to the rest of the orld!!!!
Really amazed
January 10th, 2012
11:21 am
Their is a min SAT score now to receive FULL HOPE. It is 1200 combined math and reading only. This was implemented, starting this fall 2011. Where have you all been?????
EC Mom
January 10th, 2012
11:29 am
@THE LOTTERY IS MAKING A KILLING…You’re right, not every parent can afford to send their child(ren) to college. Mine couldn’t, however they were not so poor for me to qualify for need based grants. Yet here I am, a college graduate. I chose an in-state university. I earned a scholarship. I worked part time. No sorority since I had neither the time or money for it. No fancy car or apartment. I did resort to borrowing a few thousand dollars, but that was it for loans. There are kids all over the country who find a way to pay for college without much help from their parents, and without borrowing enormous amounts of money.
catlady
January 10th, 2012
11:36 am
Steve, two of my kids had HOPE at private colleges. I don’t disagree with its usefulness. HOWEVER, if your son had not had HOPE, his private college could have either upped its grant/scholarship/loan offer, or not. At a public college, he would have gotten more money from the scholarship, BUT would have had more expected from him via work/study or loans (Public colleges have less free money to give.) I know the private colleges have lobbied hard to keep it.
Pizza
January 10th, 2012
11:41 am
“Tired of reading Ignorance” – 10:59 am
So you are the expert ? In your opinion, how much does the Lottery Commission owe HOPE Scholarship ?
IMO
January 10th, 2012
11:46 am
The biggest waste is the students that earn the scholarship then drop out. Maybe it’s the grade inflation problem and then giving those kids something they really didn’t earn is coming back to bite the program. Not entirely the problem, but a big part of it.
I say make students pay back what they wasted if they drop out, or better yet make it a pay as you go type program. Kind of like making a bonus for doing a good job. Start treating the funds they get like they are living in a grown up world. No wonder our economy and so many folks can’t handle their personal finances.
Sending my kids out of state may be a better and less expensive option. People across the country think of GA and education in the ame thought bubble and it is not a flattering picture.
Sadly, I think it’s too late to try and save HOPE from it’s eventual demise.
gadem
January 10th, 2012
11:54 am
there are many companies that offer tuition assistance to their employees. tell the students to take advantage of that perk and stop crying…if you want a college education NOTHING will stand in your way!
catlady
January 10th, 2012
12:08 pm
Tired of ignorance–one year, no bonus, but 17 years of generous bonuses.
Really amazed: I advocate a minimum score for ANY HOPE. Maybe 1000/1600.
Entitlement Society
January 10th, 2012
12:16 pm
@Teacher Reader – You have it right. HOPE has become an entitlement program. I really have to bite my tongue when I hear my neighbor whine when they talk about raising the GPA requirements, saying that isn’t fair & that “no one can afford college anymore”. Fair? What does “free money” have to do with fair? If someone is giving you something for free, they can set the rules anyway they’d like to and certainly can change them at any point along the way. If the rules change, maybe your son just needs to actually study to achieve that GPA and EARN the money from HOPE. It’s not a conspiracy. The HOPE scholarship is a reward, not an entitlement. If you want a college education, there are grants, loans, scholarships, jobs (yes, some people even work several jobs to put themselves through school!) to get you there. Stop whining about a handout, suck it up and be responsible for your own children and teach them to be responsible for themselves. No wonder we have so many Americans living off of welfare programs…
Dixiecrat
January 10th, 2012
12:32 pm
Not every kid should go to college. College is something that, if necessary, the parents should make sacrafices to pay for. That’s how it used to be. The HOPE has turned into an entitlement program paid for off of the backs of people who don’t know better than to be taxed willingly buying lottery tickets. I went to college in the mid eighties and my dad had three of us in school at one time and he was in the real estate business, which took a negative turn when Reagan changed the tax law in 1986 hindering real estate sales etc. Anyway, my dad had saved and paid for four years of tuition for me, but I had to pay for everything else and I worked two jobs through school and had to borrow the money for my fifth year and when It was on my dime, I took it a lot more seriously. College is not for everyone and it should be more of a “big deal” to attend one and graduate.
Steve
January 10th, 2012
12:34 pm
Cat Lady, I feel that you’re missing the point. If my son had attended UGA, the state of Georgia would have had to fork up more money. There is NO arguing this point. It was my son’s choice to attend a private institution that is SAVING Georgia tax payers money. Take away the private Hope stipend, and my son ends up at UGA or Georgia College and the state of Georgia pays MORE ! UGA and Georgia College are fine institutions for sure. But take away private Hope and more students that attend private schools end up going there which costs the state much more money.
KJDFH
January 10th, 2012
12:44 pm
HOPE will never have enough funds as long as schools can continue to raise tuition on it’s recipients. why not freeze the tuition amount schools can collect from students receiving HOPE
DawgFan88
January 10th, 2012
12:51 pm
Not sure if this has been stated, but here’s how HOPE should work. First year of college you must pay – get loans, whatever – out of your pocket. When you have PROVEN you belong in college with good grades, HOPE comes in to pay for the remaining three years. You could even get paid in arrears for year one if you’ve shown the grades. This way, we’re not wasting money on kids who don’t care about college. Given the percentage of kids who lose HOPE after year one, this would keep much more money in for the serious students.
Marc
January 10th, 2012
12:54 pm
Two comments said earlier have merit to me. 1 was the 1 about kids who get the Hope and flunk out have to pay back the money.
It is a performance based gift, but you still must continue to perform with penalties if you do not.
The other was the out of control tuition costs at Georgia public universities. There is NO way anyone but a dept. head at UGA should be making 100K+/year. UGA is a decent school, but what they charge for tuition and what you get for an education isn’t worth it. The HOPE is exactly why they keep raising their tuition; taxpayer FREE money. Need to put serious brakes on what they can charge right now.
KJDFH
January 10th, 2012
12:59 pm
Tired of reading Ignorance
January 10th, 2012
10:59 am
@Shar and others on this comment page! Check your sources and check them well. The Georgia Lottery Corporation NO LONGER RECEIVE BONUSES OR INCENTIVES! It has been over a YEAR SINCE BONUSES WERE DISTRIBUTED! Now What!
Diogenes
January 10th, 2012
1:24 pm
You owe me medical care, you owe me a university degree, you owe me food, rent money, etc…, you owe me whatever I dream up today that I feel is my “right”. Bull-feathers! Grow up! You can go to a great college if you want, you will find a way. Quit whining, quit blaming all of your problems on someone else and quit blaming the anyone who has more than you! Get off your butt, realize YOU have great potential to make things happen for YOU and get to it. Quit expecting everyone to hand you whatever you believe is your “right” to have. If I earned it, it is not YOURS. But, you can earn your OWN!
Entitlement Society
January 10th, 2012
1:29 pm
Amen, Diogenes!!!
nypeach
January 10th, 2012
1:36 pm
I work at a local community college, and I can’t tell you how many HOPE scholars we get straight out of high school who have to take remedial classes. I think that needing remedial classes should mean forfeiting the HOPE.
Shar
January 10th, 2012
2:09 pm
Catlady, as usual I agree with you. Taxpayers do provide the bulk of funding for the University System, but that is because tuition does not pay for all costs incurred in delivering a degree. The student’s portion, tuition, is what HOPE is supposed to pay for. However, the University System has had to raise tuition so much faster than can be justified – due to the Legislature’s failure to fund education in favor of such important priorities as Go Fish – that they have played games with costs, inventing “temporary fees” and then making them permanent and doubling them at whim.
Pay Up
January 10th, 2012
2:16 pm
The government needs to raise taxes to keep the full hope scholarship. Just jack up income taxes and sales taxes and pay 100% of tuition and books for all students with a B average.
Entitlement Society
January 10th, 2012
2:19 pm
@ Pay Up – hopefully that was sarcastic
Georgia Matters
January 10th, 2012
2:30 pm
Stop the bonus money for lottery officials, stop the paying of remedial courses and make the students earn at least a B to maintain the Hope.
I gota tell ya, my son goes on a Hope, his last semister but even though he has the hope he cant use it. He only got 911 for this semister but he can only use 485 of it for his classes. It does not even pay the tution all the way. $911 is not a lot but at least he should be able to use it for his education instead of it going back to the state.
I voted for the lottery to fund the hope and pre-k, not to give high payed lottery officials and administrators at local and state colleges huge bonuses. They get paid a salary to perform their jobs. If they dont perform then fire them. If they do perform, then they did what they were paid to do. End of comments.
ACE
January 10th, 2012
2:51 pm
Notice how everything is worse since Georgia became a red state? Roads, schools, unemployment, now HOPE. Republicans destroy everything they touch.
yuzeyurbrane
January 10th, 2012
3:04 pm
It took about a year to realize that Deal’s “saving HOPE” legislation was all spin, as he well knew. More and more college expenses have been foisted upon HOPE recipients despite a promise of “fixed for four” when they were enticed to Ga. colleges in a classic bait and switch scam. How did they do it? Not so hard. They only froze tuitions for 4 years. So they promptly started labeling most increases as “fees”. They also changed the rules in the middle of the game to excude fees and books from HOPE. And they have not met the statutory requirement that 35% of lottery profits go to HOPE in years, staying basically around a 25% figure. Huge bonuses to lottery officials, huge incentives to merchants, and Sonny and Deal only know how much has been sucked off in sweetheart vendor contracts because no one has even looked. At the same time, the state has cut its budget on education by billions, facing college administrators with the Hobson’s Choice of gutting the quality gains their schools had struggled to earn or increasing the out-of-pocket charges on students and their families. Governor Deal reportedly looks upon HOPE as an entitlement program he would like to turn into a voucher program which is essentially what occurred with his so-called “reform”. At the same time, state subsidies of private school education have actually increased. The people of this state can only blame it on themselves if they continue to elect officials who do not believe in quality public education. The real public policy question is: will Georgia invest in creating a well-educated workforce that will attract the 21st century industries to create a prosperous state?
Entitlement Society
January 10th, 2012
3:17 pm
@yuzeyurbrane – just what makes you think the State of Georgia should GIVE you even a dollar for college? They owe us nothing. Get out there and work for it like the rest of us have done and are teaching our children to do. Money is tight, but we instill work ethic and achievement values in our family. Our ancestors came to this country with nothing and did it. I can do it. Why can’t you? Why do you think you deserve a handout from the state?
To Entitlement Society from Good Mom
January 10th, 2012
4:10 pm
Whoa there, ES. You’re barking up the wrong tree and you need to get your facts straight. Our ancestors wer immigrants but they didn’t “make it” — they were exploited. Children were in factories being maimed and killed as they worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week for starvation wages.
It took the GOVERNMENT as in “we the people” to make laws to change the horrific working conditions and exploitation big business used to fatten themselves.
HOPE is necessary in this rotten economy with skyrocketing tuition. Yes, HOPE changed the rules midstream and without a job or without reasonable financial supplements, these hard working studying kids can’t make it through college.
We as taxpayers and citizens should be clamoring for our government to provide education to the generatioin beneath us. It is they who need to earn enough money to pay taxes so that we, the old, can get social security, an “entitlement” I’ve worked for all my life to get. I will need medicare too after I am too old and worn out to work anymore. Where do you think that money comes from?
It comes from those kids today who are struggling to pay for school. Without an education, they won’t be able to have the knowledge and skills to maintain an economy and a democracy.
You best be kind to the generation below you. We owe them an education. Just as we need to thank and be grateful to the generation above us who gave their very lives and livlihoods so that we can have a better life; we need to do the same for them.
It’s time for all of us to be generous and kind to those who have helped us (the generation above us) and to the generation behind us (the ones who will care for us when we are old and no longer able.
WE lost our way
January 10th, 2012
4:35 pm
Has any one seen the Governors recommendations for this years budget??? Look hard at the fine print and you will see a request for millions to buy land for the new Falcon Stadium in downtown Atlanta. I guess football and entertainment comes before education.Oh well back to the same old game being played in the Gold Dome.Go Falcons and Yea for the Executive Suites for Legislators in the new stadium.By the way the current one (stadium) has suites for the key legislators not paid out of their pocket.Go figure!!!
woodrow
January 10th, 2012
4:43 pm
I agree the Hope scholarship should be merit-based. I thought it was merit-based? I never was able to go to college because I couldn’t afford it. All my hard work in High School was a waste of my time. I never got to college. I hope these young hard-working people take advantage of this while it lasts.
WJH
January 10th, 2012
4:59 pm
You folks voted GOP now you have the results – fully funded road building and cuts to education. Too bad the HOPE doesn’t provide kick backs it would be fully funded too!
greg
January 10th, 2012
5:06 pm
Hope was meant to help middle and lower class kids, it should now be called the ‘great White Hope’, rich folks can afford tutors and special schools. Plus the government gives almost 50 million extra to politically connected kids, the system is corrupted. Way to much advertising, to high salaries and there should be a salary cap put on, say families making over 150 grand no longer get it. Soon only the rich will go to college and the middle class and poor will fight the wars just like Vietnam. We see what happens when rich generation after rich generation run the country, right into the ground.
gradgrind
January 10th, 2012
5:09 pm
All the graduate students and part-time adjuncts who are performing the bulk of introductory teaching duties should 1) go on strike and 2) sue the lottery corporation for back living wages. It’s hard to teach (ahem, remediate) two classes, do extra professional duties, hold office hours, grade papers, prepare for conferences, and do your own research when the heat or the water or the lights or the Internet is getting cut off. Groceries and downtown parking are officially unsustainable now, as well. Yet GSU sees fit to charge a slew of pork fees:
$92 Activity Fee (to pay for clubs)
$263 Athletic Fee (but wait, there’s more)
$35 Health Fee (for the student clinic)
$15 International Fee (for study abroad)
$35 Library Fee (that’s OK; it’s why we’re here)
$53 Recreation Fee (wait, activity fee? athletic fee? WAIT FOR IT…)
$36 Student Center (we have two of these. Do we need two student centers?)
$46 Transportation (for the parking place you can’t get because it’s been oversold for 30 years)
$85 Technology Fee (for undergrads on the HOPE Scholarship to play games, listen to music videos, check Facebook, etc. in the library where you would like to be researching)
AND…
$404 USG Institution Fee (I think this is what they used to call a “temporary fee” about 2006). Is this a CYA of the credit swap purchase of the SunTrust Building?
This has been going on for years. Try supporting two people on $1100 a month after taxes with no access to public transportation. The kicker? They set chirpy undergrads on us via dinner-time (no dinner) phone bank (if it’s on) to ask for alumni donations… and now, undergrads can join the Alumni Association as a sort of alumni-to-be thing and pay MORE money into the coffers.
TWO WORDS: FORENSIC AUDIT.
gradgrind
January 10th, 2012
5:09 pm
That should read “and the Internet ARE getting cut off.” That I did learn before college.
gradgrind
January 10th, 2012
5:11 pm
@Georgia Matters: Some departments no longer teach “remedial” course as such. Guess why not. (Of course, that doesn’t mean the kids are ready for regular introductory work–and that includes third- and fourth-year transfers from other USG colleges).
greg
January 10th, 2012
5:13 pm
Entitlement Society Do you really think everyone that came here was poor?,, Get to know your history teabagger, now go back and get your gov contract that you no doubt got due to paying off gov Deal.
Prof
January 10th, 2012
5:42 pm
@ woodrow, Jan. 10, 4:43 pm. It’s never too late to go to college! According to Georgia law, USG schools must provide tuition-waivers for students who are Georgia citizens and 62 or older. Check the school in which you’re interested for details.
I’ve had over-62 seniors in several classes over the years. They must first be admitted by the institution, and can only enroll at a certain point in registration after the full-paying students have enrolled. But I’ve known some who have gotten their undergraduate degrees this way. They add a ballast to the class, and usually are eager students who actually do all of the assigned readings. The younger students seem to enjoy their presence, for they clearly are learning for the sake of learning.
Go for it!!
quietmarcoit
January 10th, 2012
5:47 pm
Loan forgiveness, are you f-ing kidding? The entitlement mentality that so many people have adapted in recent years is a big problem, and yes I am referring to the Obama minions. The privilege of obtaining a higher education is not a right. If you make the grades your in, if not oh well.
em
January 10th, 2012
6:06 pm
The Governor’s Office on Student Achievement shows that only 32 percent of Georgia’s HOPE recipients actually retain it. Maybe it’s time to make HOPE a reimbursement program before the well completely runs dry.
Entitlement Society
January 10th, 2012
6:54 pm
@Good Mom – You’re missing the point and maybe you need to get your facts straight. I don’t know about your ancestors, but mine came from several countries from poor families in search of freedom and the American dream, trying to create their own destiny. They didn’t come here expecting life to be easy and handed to them on a silver platter. DID THEY GO TO COLLEGE? NO. Like others have said today, not everyone is college material. HOPE Scholars needing remedial courses? (I had to chuckle to myself when I read that one.) The program is an obvious joke and should be scrapped period. Then maybe these kids would learn how the real world works and that things aren’t just handed to you. We need to raise a generation with work ethic and motivation, not one who depends on the government for handouts. The role of government is not to run our lives.
Those of you waiting around for the government to education your children, just sit back and take a number. I, on the other hand, have decided to make sacrafices in other areas so I can send them to private school and avoid this whole mess. I will also make sure that I (or they) are responsible for their own college tuition and do not expect the government to educate MY child. I chose to have the children, now it’s my turn to see to it that they’re educated.
@ Greg from Entitlement Society
January 10th, 2012
7:00 pm
@ Greg – Sorry Greg. Didn’t mean to offend you. I had no way of knowing your ancestors were rich. Mine like millions of others were poor and worked for everything our family has today. No government handouts for us.
Entitlement Society
January 10th, 2012
7:06 pm
*sacrifices – oops from 2 posts up
Scooby
January 10th, 2012
9:06 pm
@ Greg,
You hit the nail on the head. Hope was created to provide hope to those who were under priviledged but the politicos changed it. Now the participation by those who can afford to pay the bill has gutted the program. Thats why I have not purchased a GL ticket in years and I encouraged other, not so well to do, folks to join me. We don’t need to subsidize the greedy.
gradgrind
January 10th, 2012
11:07 pm
@what_what: Obviously you’ve never had to take a real art history course. Ever notice how all the slacker students sign up for intro appreciation courses in the arts, then cry like they dropped their paccies when they get the D they earned?
I get so tired of the utilitarian approach to higher ed. Students who think a university education is a trade school/job license mill, yet don’t even have a fast-food gig to pay for their beer, have no idea what they’re doing in college. Want practicality? Call the Carpenters Union and try earning a journeyman’s license.
I guarantee you that when I was an undergrad (working three part-time jobs, thank you very much), maybe 1/30 students were NOT working their way through college. Now, the inverse is the case. Imagine: one, maybe two “traditional” students (ages 18-22) in a class have ever had some kind of a part-time job. Seriously? I filed my first tax return when I was 14. I have actually had students say they are in college because they “don’t like to get [their] hands dirty.” What what?…
Woe unto the parents who created these monsters.
God Bless the Teacher!
January 11th, 2012
6:25 am
HOPE = High Occupancy Post-secondary Education. If pre-weeding took place before future college drop outs ever got to college, fewer people would be in college. Accordingly, no need to keep building all the extra buildings and activity centers that ultimately increase required student fees. Provide full-pay HOPE to students going to smaller colleges (some that were just merged) to help boost enrollments there and help the local economies that support said institutions.
Texan in Georgia
January 11th, 2012
7:56 am
You can thank High School administrators and the University system for screwing up a great thing.
Ole Guy
January 12th, 2012
4:42 pm
Too many hands have been in this “cookie jar” for too long. Too many (kids who pretend to be) college students have soaked up too many “cookies” while taking remedials instead of real college courses. What’s worse…this entire free-for-all cookie grab has gone unmanaged and unregulated.
All these “studies”, statements, and proclamations merely point out, with stark clarity, the results of crappy scholarship management. Just exactly what do these people…these powers that be whose only interest is, supposedly, the publics’ interest…intend on doing in order to MANAGE an obviously dwindling resource?
* Tighten up on grade inflation. Far too many kids, who have absolutely no business even thinking about college attendance, receive top grades (at parental insistence), completely unearned, for the sole purpose of saving mom and pop a few bucks.
* Award HOPE ONLY after at least two grading periods of A/B performance with REAL college courses.
* If the kid falls below a GPA reflective of less than A/B work…awright, give em’ A semester/quarter to get his stuff together. After that, NO MORE HOPE.
IMO has an excellent suggestion. Prior to the awarding of the monies, have the parents issue a downpayment…in real estate parlance, earnest money…to be refunded AFTER the kid has demonstrated so many grading periods of academic success.
Far too many people seem to insist on awarding the endless “second chances” to today’s youth. We’ve seen just where this all leads; we KNOW just where it’s all going to wind up…GENERATIONAL FAILURE. And you good people have absolutely no one to blame but yourselves. You piss n’moan over issues which you, AS INTERESTED FOLKS, should have seen long ago. Meanwhile, just about every other topic of conversation somehow becomes riddled with racial overtones…just what one would expect from a bunch of low life hicks.
QUITCHERBITCHIN an’ start looking at these issues as real adults would.
MInton O'Neal
January 12th, 2012
5:08 pm
Some evaluation of the facts is necessary here. The reason that the Hope program is running out of cash has more to do with the outrageous escalation of the costs of higher education, (possibly driven by the mere existence of the Hope money). In addition, the disingenuous Board of Regents has allowed (or caused) the institutions to raise fees, not tuition, but the effect on the students is the same. College costs in Georgia are SOARING and there is no accountability for that. A real life example: My daughter matriculated at Georgia Tech in the Fall of 2007. Total tuition and mandatory fees (no books, no rooom/board, no freshman application fees, etc) for that semester were $2821. At that time, it was possible to enter school under a fixed tuition program, and the tuition portion of that ($2248) was frozen for 4 years. My son is currently a Georgia Tech student. The total tuition and mandatory fees for the current semester are: $4896, and they escalate every year. Again, this includes no optional expenses, nor books, room/board, etc. So, in four and one-half academic years, the mandatory institutional fees at Georgia Tech have escalated 117.8%!!! This happened in a down economy! Now, I am not complaining or begging for relief in any way. But, this is absurd! If you really want to understand why Hope is sliding to bankruptcy, call it what it really is….
Cheers!
MInton O'Neal
January 12th, 2012
5:17 pm
My apologies…on my comment above. Mandatory fees are up 73.6%. I used an incorrect divisor. The balance of the posting is accurate.
Cheers!
Prof
January 12th, 2012
6:19 pm
@ Minton O’Neal, 5:08 pm.
I just want to point out that your daughter graduated from Ga. Tech. in 2007, just before the collapse of the economy in 2008. The large legislative cuts to the research universities began in 2008. As you point out so astutely, we are in a down economy. That accounts for the unfrozen tuition 4 years later, and the annual soaring fees. Tuition never covers the full costs of students’ educations. Where do you expect Tech to come up with the shortcoming in funds here, given that every year it has had 2-4% budget cuts from the legislature like the other USG schools? It’s not a public charity.
Ole Guy
January 14th, 2012
5:02 pm
Minton, don’t apologize over a simple arithmetical hickup; your point is well-put. College costs are certainly not in keeping with national economic idecies. One might attribute this to any number of factors: greed (college costs, even back in the 60s/70s, was considered an indication of the “money-grubin’ ” administrators), the costs of quality education, etc. As you bring out, the mere presence of HOPE monies (back in the 70s, with the advent of returning warriors heading for the classrooms, GI Bill monies was certainly viewed as a lucrative target by college administrators everywhere) probably adds to the upward spiral of college costs.
The bottom lne, irrefutable fact remains…college is no place for the kid to “find self”. For this reason, kids, on HOPE, who cannot/will not get with the program should be made to reimburse the funds. As the program now stands, from what I understand, the monies are there simply for the asking. False grades “qualifying” for HOPE notwithstanding, these kids AND their parents seem to feel that they are, somehow, deserving of a cut of the shrinking HOPE pool. If the kid demonstrates true resolve in attaining academic success in college, well and good…the HOPE is a sound investment. Otherwise, HOPE “management” needs to start…well…MANAGING the pool.
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