Yes.
Changes keep HOPE solvent for next generation of Georgians.
By Jan Jones
As the Speaker Pro Tem of the House, parents often ask me this very real question: Will HOPE be around for my kids?
As a parent of four children, two who received HOPE in college and two currently in high school, the answer is a resounding Yes.
Our goal is simple: to preserve and strengthen HOPE for tomorrow’s students and generations to come. This won’t be achieved without tough decisions.
The first HOPE scholarship was awarded fall 1993. The original program included numerous restrictions, primarily due to unknowns such as how much revenue the lottery would generate and how many students would participate.
Since then, HOPE’s scope and scale expanded and more than 1.2 million students have been awarded a HOPE scholarship or grant.
The lottery-funded pre-k program has enrolled more than 1 million kids, including 53 percent of today’s 4-year-olds. Pre-k offers more than six hours of daily instruction at a $4,200 cost per child.
Changes to HOPE since 1993 include: expansion to four college years; $150 semester book allowances; mandatory fees payments averaging $420 yearly; additional chances to re-gain HOPE; expansion to include older college and home-schooled students; and increases in scholarship grants to $4,000 for private college students.
The HOPE Grant program pays tuition for Georgians seeking a technical certificate or diploma at 26 technical colleges. Enrollment increased 25 percent in 2010 alone.
Students from all across the socio-economic spectrum have been trained to compete in today’s job market through the HOPE Grant. The young man that recently passed the GED sits side-by-side in night classes with a 47-year-old single mother. In fact, more than 50 percent of HOPE scholarship and grant recipients have family yearly incomes less than $40,000.
One study estimates the college attendance rate among all Georgia 18- to 19-year olds increased by as much as 8 percentage points due to HOPE. More students than ever scoring in the top 10 percent on the SAT choose an in-state college.
Many businesses have touted HOPE as an incentive to recruit talent to Georgia. HOPE rounds out our state’s reputation as a great place to live, work, raise a family — and gain an excellent education.
This week, Gov. Nathan Deal outlined proposed changes to the HOPE program and with strong bipartisan support. HOPE programs will be maintained and adjusted yearly according to lottery revenues.
Next year, merit-based HOPE scholarship students attending public and private colleges as well as technical college students will receive 90 percent of 2011 tuition amounts. HOPE Scholarship will continue to require a 3.0 GPA.
The plan also creates the Zell Miller Scholarship — offering full tuition to Georgia’s public colleges and universities — for our best students who graduate with a minimum 3.7 GPA and 1200 on the SAT or ACT equivalent. Books, fees and remedial college classes will no longer be covered.
Gov. Miller branded our state through HOPE.
We’ll carry it forward with carefully considered changes to preserve HOPE for a brighter future.
State Rep. Jan Jones, R-Alpharetta, is House Speaker Pro Tem.
No.
Income cap would preserve entire award for those who need it.
By Zaid Jilani
While attending the University of Georgia, I felt secure knowing the HOPE scholarship would be there for me. It allowed me to graduate with few financial burdens, and I was able to move to the Washington, D.C., area to work at a nonprofit think tank, unburdened by massive student loans.
So when Gov. Deal unveiled his plan to overhaul HOPE — which would involve huge cuts for 90 percent of its current recipients — I was dismayed.
Deal said the system is facing “bankruptcy” in 2013 and that his plan was designed to “save Georgia’s prized jewel, the HOPE scholarship.”
I’ve learned a lot in Washington. One thing is that the most common way politicians trick the public is by presenting them with a false choice.
Deal says that limiting full scholarships to those who had graduated from high school with a 3.7 GPA and have at least a 1200 SAT score on the math and reading sections would save the program from bankruptcy. What he claims isn’t false. Making huge cuts in aid for most students, forcing them to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars more out-of-pocket, would help shore up the system’s solvency.
Yet deciding between huge cuts for most students and bankruptcy is a false choice. There are other options.
The main reason HOPE faces a shortfall in funding is because lottery ticket sales are failing to cover costs. One way to close the gap in funding would be to do what we originally did when we started the program — limit it to students from low- and middle-income families. Rep. David Lucas, D-Macon, has done exactly that, proposing to re-install an income cap on the program. While Lucas’ $66,000 cap is too low (it fails to account for inflation) if the cap was raised to $100,000, it would help save the program for most while no longer having to dole out tuition aid to the wealthiest who don’t need it.
Another option would be to stop relying solely on the lottery and state reserves to fund the HOPE program. The Georgia Budget Policy Institute estimates that imposing a 1 percent surcharge on income more than $400,000 for married couples and $200,000 for singles would raise $200 million a year and effect less than 1 percent of Georgians. This money would close two-thirds of the HOPE deficit, and a slightly higher tax rate could close it completely.
Some combination of these two strategies would ask the richest Georgians to sacrifice a little more so that the vast majority of Georgians can continue to have access to the educational opportunities they need to succeed. And of course, a well-educated workforce would continue to benefit even the richest Georgians. Yet Deal has stubbornly ruled out any tax increases or means-testing of the program, effectively sacrificing the futures of the vast majority of Georgians to protect a few.
Under Deal’s plan, the average freshman student in 2008 at only two state universities — Tech and UGA — would’ve met the full aid requirements. Additionally, the steep GPA and SAT requirements will almost certainly ensure that only students from the richest parts of the state, which are the most high-performing, will be the ones given full HOPE scholarships.
We must reject Deal’s false choice and make our own choice — to live in a state where all who work hard can succeed, not just the well-off.
Zaid Jilani, a Kennesaw native, writes for the Progress Report at the Center for American Progress Action Fund in Washington, D.C.
