HOPE has own part in fight over education in Georgia governor’s race

Since its implementation in 1993 by then-Gov. Zell Miller, more than $5.8 billion in HOPE awards have been paid to more than 1.4 million students attending state and technical colleges, according to the commission. The program, which was launched as a means for keeping Georgia’s students in the state after high school, grew for years before being narrowed in 2011 to keep it from going bankrupt.

Carter has routinely criticized Deal for cuts he proposed — which were ultimately approved by state lawmakers — that reduced award amounts and tightened eligibility requirements to cut expenses and ultimately led to thousands of students losing eligibility. Carter has been particularly critical of the numbers of technical college students who lost HOPE funding under the cuts.

Deal, in turn, has criticized Carter for his past support for placing income caps on the HOPE awards, making it more of a need-based program (The HOPE program included an income cap when initially established, but it was later removed). Carter says he no longer supports solid income caps, as they are "too blunt an instrument" to determine eligibility, but he does think need should be considered at some point.

That position swayed Miller, the HOPE architect, to appear in an ad supporting Deal.

“That was the main issue I had with Jason. He seemed to want to do it by income, and I wanted to do it by merit alone,” Miller, who is supporting Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn for the U.S. Senate, said in an interview Tuesday. “(Deal) held to that original thinking of mine that it was for the best students, not the best students who might come from low-income families but just the best students period.”

Of the 44 states with established lottery programs, 26 have earmarked proceeds for education — either k-12, higher education or both, according to a report released last month by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. HOPE has been credited as the model for other states launching similar programs.

But after 20 years, the time has come to reassess the program, said Alan Essig, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

“Instead of discussing who’s saving or not saving HOPE, or adjusting the status quo, there needs to be a discussion of, after 20 years, are we spending limited lottery funds in the best way,” Essig said.

The report by the AASCU recommends that merit-based, lottery-funded programs such as HOPE provide at least one need-based element to their programs, such as a supplemental award based on need, in addition to the main merit scholarship award.

“If the policy goal is access, then some need-based component needs to be put into it,” Essig said, “… because a lot of middle- and upper-middle-class students without HOPE would still be sending their kids to college, but for lower-income families, having some state financial aid would be the difference in going or not.”