Black Caucus proposes HOPE changes

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By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The popular HOPE college scholarship was again the subject of proposed changes Thursday at the state Capitol, this time by members of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus.

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Sen. Emanuel Jones, chairman of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, said the group will propose changes to the HOPE scholarship that would make members would make the wealthiest Georgia families ineligible for it.

Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com Sen. Emanuel Jones, chairman of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, said the group will propose changes to the HOPE scholarship that would make members would make the wealthiest Georgia families ineligible for it.

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Led by the caucus chairman, Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, members would make the wealthiest Georgia families ineligible for the lottery-funded state scholarships as well as scale back requirements they said too often exclude poor, urban families.

They also want to change how HOPE is awarded. Caucus members want the money available to be proportional to how many lottery tickets are sold in an area. The idea is this would help diversify HOPE by increasing the amount of money available in communities where more tickets are sold.

New limits would be placed on the state's Zell Miller Scholarship, launched last year by Gov. Nathan Deal to provide full tuition to the state's highest-achieving students.

The caucus also plans to push for a mandate requiring the Georgia Student Finance Commission to collect up-to-date demographic information, including the race and gender of students who receive awards. The accounting would come amid concerns by the caucus that HOPE disproportionately benefits students from wealthier, white suburban communities.

"There is a lot of common sense with this," Jones said.

Democrats in both the Senate and House already have filed bills with many of the same proposed changes that were pushed Thursday by the caucus, including reinstating a cap on family income for students to be eligible for HOPE. Such a cap existed when the program began but was quickly lifted after the lottery proved financially successful.

None of the bills has received a hearing in committee, the next step in the legislative process. Similar Democratic proposals introduced last year went nowhere.

The proposals have come as lawmakers start to see the impact of changes made to HOPE last year, when the Legislature and Deal reduced award payouts and implemented other changes to keep the program from going broke. Lottery revenue, while bringing in billions of dollars since it began in 1993, can't keep up with soaring enrollment and tuition.