AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2007 > July > 31
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
HOPE Falls
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As predicted previously, the number of students eligible for the state’s HOPE scholarship plummeted this year because of more stringent standards for qualifying. According to today’s story by my colleague Matt Kempner, figures from the Georgia Student Finance Commission show that only about a third of this year’s graduates — roughly 18,000 fewer students — will be able to use Georgia’s Lottery-funded college scholarship this year.
In previous years, more than half of the state’s graduates earned the scholarship.
Even with changes in the way a student’s grade point average is calculated, HOPE is still relatively easy to get. There’s no essay or interview. SAT scores don’t matter. Scholarship winners don’t even need an A average.
I’ve only been in Georgia for a few years. But since then it seemed to me that HOPE was viewed largely as a right for every high school graduate. I didn’t realize until Matt and I discussed it the other day that the scholarship was created for low-income students.
Some might say it’s time to move the program back to its original intentions. But as we’ve seen, the Lottery is flush with cash. If the money isn’t spent on Pre-K and college scholarships, what do you do with it?
UPDATE: A small Methodist college in Cherokee County has told students not to worry about missing out on HOPE this year, according to the latest story by Matt Kempner. If incoming freshman would have qualified for the state scholarship under the old rules, Reinhardt College is giving them $2,000 each to offset the financial burden of the $14,800 tuition. I guess all colleges aren’t concerned that high schools have uniform grading policies after all.
