Commenters on the AJC Get Schooled blog debated whether it was time to reconsider the changes made in 2011 to the HOPE Scholarship to reduce costs. A full HOPE Scholarship now only goes to students with a 3.7 grade point average and at least a 1200 on the 1600-scale SAT, which favors affluent kids who score higher on standardized tests. Students with a 3.0 high school GPA earn only a portion of tuition, based on available lottery funds. Here is a sampling of reader comments:
Mar: I remember why and when the HOPE Scholarship was started. It has evolved over the years to not help the very people who it was originally intended for. Then, when you look at the makeup of those folks under the Gold Dome, would you expect any other outcome?
Mensa: When the government is subsidizing something, it automatically becomes more expensive. Which is why vouchers won't work. I'd like to see the whole HOPE die a slow and painful death; then, we can get back to actually teaching kids instead of justifying grades.
SF: A few of us protested four years when these changes to HOPE were made by the governor and the Legislature. For reasons beyond our understanding, our protests were met with silence and little or no protest from the media that cover education or state government. Everyday working Georgians contribute to the financial well-being of the state, but receive less benefit than they need for their children and families' well-being, whether funding for post-secondary education, health care coverage or investment in transit, clean air and water.
Derwin: HOPE wasn't started until a couple years after I finished Georgia Tech in 1993, and I grew up as poor. But a mixture of scholarships, grants (Pell) and loans got me through Tech. Each of those options is still available.
AEP: Tuition went up because HOPE let it, and now it's broken.
W2XAB: The HOPE Scholarship needs to be based upon academic performance (scholarship), the HOPE Grant needs to be based upon need. I have no problem with the HOPE Scholarship paying for the first semester of college, but after that, if students fail to meet academic standards, they should be dropped from receiving future HOPE funds.
STY: Why even bother? When Georgia is done cutting out all music and art programs, they'll probably start cutting out science programs. We'll be in last place two-times over then.
George: Time to strip the not-for-profit status of most colleges and universities in this country. If they can't control tuition rates within a reasonable level around inflation, then they don't deserve the generous tax benefits they've grown accustomed to. Higher education has simply become a monetary grab bag by the institutions that provide the services, and it's beyond time it stops.
JTAV: We worry about the wrong things too late. You cannot continue to socially promote students through high school and then think they are ready to take on college-level work. We know our math scores statewide are awful, yet we rid ourselves of the graduation tests because not enough students could pass them. If you don't fix k-5 and send students on to middle school with proficiency in math, it will be for naught.
