For parents of teens planning to enter a Georgia college in the fall, this may be the summer of your discontent. The governor set his sights on reforming the HOPE scholarship, and he had the votes. But it’s a good bet that even HOPE-lite will be a lot better than no HOPE at all.
Why HOPE needed fixing in the first place was and still is a matter of opinion. Some believe the trouble stems from how much lottery money goes to support Georgia’s pre-k programs. That’s money not available to college-bound high school graduates.
Others complain that employees of the Georgia Lottery Corp. are too well compensated for their labors. The fact that those labors consist of peddling phony get-rich-quick schemes of ancient pedigree adds to the appeal of such a complaint.
I happen to think, however, that this is one of those occasions when Walt Kelly’s Pogo had the answer over 40 years ago: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
What many parents seem to forget is that HOPE is a merit-based scholarship and not a government-funded entitlement program. It was designed to reward high school students who excel academically, not bail out parents who seem to think they have better things to do with their money than plan for their child’s college education.
A student once accused me of wanting him to lose HOPE. In truth, he was a C student trying to hold on to a B scholarship. He was not alone. Many first-year students enter college with HOPE only to lose it within the first two semesters.
But they don’t lose HOPE because evil English professors want to see them and their parents struggle to pay for a college education. They lose HOPE because they’re not scholars.
But enough about parents and students. Let’s move on to the teachers. One of the reasons so many students lose HOPE during their first year of college is because high school teachers inflate grades.
They do this because it is difficult to make it in this world without a college education, and because college is expensive They also do this because if they don’t they’ll be hearing from angry parents 24/7. So C students magically become B students and everyone is happy, for a little while anyway.
Many of DeKalb County’s parents and students are keeping their fingers crossed as the 2010-2011 school year draws to a close. Graduation day looms as does that final grade report.
Students with bona fide GPAs will earn a HOPE scholarship and, just as important, they will know how to keep it. For those parents whose teens come up short, or who can’t hold on to HOPE, Georgia’s low-priced community college system is a viable alternative.
The financial crisis facing HOPE could have a silver lining. It might prompt parents to plan ahead just in case their children don’t qualify for HOPE. It might also prompt students to spend more time studying and less time social networking. And it just might remind high school teachers that there is a difference between assigning grades and picking lottery numbers.
Rick Diguette, a college professor, lives in Tucker. Reach him at rick.diguette@gmail.com
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