Seek Full Funding for Next Year
By Lou Phelps
The GOP-controlled Georgia General Assembly passed major changes to the HOPE scholarship program in March, changes that have led a group of Georgia Democratic leaders to tour the state, talking with parents and students to explain both the changes and their concerns.
And, they have not given up lobbying the governor to change his mind, even at this late date, for more funding for the academic year that begins July 1.
Sen. Jason Carter (D) from Decatur has led the Democratic effort to fully fund currently enrolled college students. "I believe we owe it to the current college students who have come in with the promise of HOPE, who have worked hard, who have upheld their end of the bargain," he said in an interview with Coastal Family magazine during an April 6 interview in Savannah.
Rep. Stacy Evans (D) from Cobb County, part of the team out talking with parents, says their primary goal is to raise awareness of the changes. “Our view is that for years it became the model that it was the most effective way to insure that people in our state could go to college,” and they’ve found that students and parents either don’t realize that HOPE has been changed for this coming fall or don’t have all the facts. She serves as House Minority Leader and is backing an effort to increase the Hope program, adding low-interest loans program for students who come close to the required 3.0 GPA.
Also traveling the state is Savannah’s Senator Lester Jackson (D).
Georgia has 318,000 students in Georgia’s 32 colleges, with 223,000 of the students receiving HOPE funds. The majority of all students at Georgia’s state colleges are in-state residents, unlike other state college systems which have higher populations of out-of-state students in attendance who pay higher tuition rates and help fund total costs.
Starting in the fall, entering freshmen and all current students will have their HOPE grant cut from $4,000 to $3,600 a year, receiving only 90 percent of the cost of the tuition set by Georgia’s colleges and university system. And all funds for books, fees and remedial classes have been eliminated. Books can run hundreds of dollars each semester.
In future years, the funding for HOPE will change every year – tied to whatever comes in through the Georgia Lottery, versus being increased annually to cover the cost of tuition at one of Georgia’s 32 public colleges, universities and technical colleges. The changes pit the General Assembly against the Georgia Board of Regents which sets annual tuition levels, and pits the parents of college students against the parents of young children about to enter Pre-K programs. One third of all Lottery funds go to fund Georgia’s Pre-K programs.
Starting last summer, with the state budget clearly in trouble, Democratic leaders began to work to protect as much of HOPE funds by advocating for a return to the original intent of the HOPE scholarship.
In 1992, a majority of voters amended the Georgia Constitution to allow state-sanctioned gambling – The Georgia Lottery – to provide money to pay some costs for higher education for Georgia’s high school graduates.
The original intent of the HOPE scholarship was to make higher education affordable for bright, hard-working Georgia students who could not afford a college education. Family income had to be below $66,000 per year to receive HOPE grants – 600 percent below the federal poverty limit, wherever that was set.
What the GOP did was, “rather than consider whether people need it or not, they just cut it,” explains Carter.
The Democrats support a different approach: “By setting the family income limit at or below 600 percent of the federal poverty level, it would ensure that the program would remain financially solvent and able to carry out its original mission. These new limits would be effective July 1, 2011; students and those currently receiving HOPE would not be affected,” he explained.
“The lottery funds are not tax dollars; we tolerate the lottery because we believe in this state that it’s better to have more college graduates,” said Carter.
Pre-kindergarten programs and computers in classrooms were the other parts of the original bill that Georgians voted on when they approved the lottery.
Currently, a third of all HOPE funds still go to support Pre-K programs, to help all students to have an opportunity to succeed when they enter first grade. Gov. Deal originally cut out the Pre-K funds in February, as part of his approach to changing HOPE, shortly after being sworn in, but Democrats held Town Hall meetings all over the state. After the public outcry, including from teachers, school administrators and some school boards, he reversed his position.
Deal’s approach would have cut the Pre-K day in half, which would have significantly increased busing costs and “you would have cut out food and meals for needy children,” explained Carter. All implications of cutting out the Pre-K program were not thoroughly analyzed.
One third of HOPE funds are grants for technical students, a major emphasis in Georgia to create a workforce that is attractive to potential companies looking to move to Georgia, in a state where many students graduating from high school are not ‘college material.’
State college tuitions have risen, and funds from the General Assembly for colleges and universities have been slashed, and the lottery funds have been unable to keep up. The system was nearing financial collapse.
There are no projections on how many students will not be able to pay their tuitions bills come the fall, according to Carter. Members of the General Assembly voted without those facts. “It’s apparently impossible to quantify it,” he added.
Since the GOP plan passed, they are now calling on the governor to use available Lottery funds for all current seniors and students now already enrolled in college.
Another change in the GOP bill is the amount of money that the lottery must hold in reserve. The new bill lowers the required reserve to $ 440 million. “That means that there is $240 million just lying around, it’s excess reserve,” he said.
According to the governor’s office, the cost for fully funding current students and those set to enter in the fall is $180 million. The Board of Regents says it would only cost $58 million. Somewhere in there lies the truth,” he added. The Democrats want more time to analyze impact on students and their families.
”We’re breaking our promise to them. We don’t have to break the promise, we have the money,” Carter summarized.
“The governor’s plan is now focusing to insure that a very small number of students go to Georgia (UGA) and Georgia Tech,” they said, versus every student that was HOPE eligible.
Changes in the new legislation include that by 2014 students are required to take more advanced courses – a college preparatory curriculum, which they did not appear to object to.
Each year, the Georgia Student Finance Commission will look at lottery revenues and make a determination on the funding level for the next year versus the current plan where the HOPE grant is tied to tuition rates. That group is appointed by the governor.
The rules of HOPE have historically been simple: receive a 3.0 grade-point average and the State of Georgia would pay your tuition at state schools. Instead the GOP-led new legislation cuts the amount that HOPE will fund per students, adds a plan for low-interest loans, eliminates payments for books, fees or attendance in remedial classes.
One worry by Democrats about the plan is that Georgia’s job picture needs to improve so that graduating students can find a job that will allow them to both live and repay the loans, a concern with high unemployment. And…
• The new plan calls for a full scholarship for students who achieve a 3.7 GPA, a 1200 on the SAT or are the valedictorian and salutatorian at their high school.
• No matter their grades, high school students would have to take more difficult classes to qualify for a HOPE scholarship.
• Students whose grades slip while in college would have only one chance to win the scholarship back.
• High school students will need to take more rigorous classes to qualify for HOPE, at all.
• And technical college students who receive HOPE grants would for the first time need to demonstrate they are earning good grades.
• The bill caps how much retailers can collect from selling winning tickets and limits the bonuses given to Georgia Lottery officials.
The Senate bill passed 35 to 20, following party lines, and was returned to the House where Democrats tried to pass amendments that would have continued with full scholarships and made the program available to more students, but their attempts failed. Their bill would have also grandfathered-in current HOPE college students until they graduate.
Created in 1993, Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program has helped more than 1 million students attend college, and been replicated by more than 12 other U.S. states.
Editors Note: Brianna Quarterman, CF reporter intern, contributed to this story.
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