Georgia Hope Scholarship Grant and Award Amounts

The Georgia Student Finance Commission website keeps a record of the total Georgia Hope Scholarship Grant and Award payment for the history of the program.  You can see the effects of the changes in the program from the 2010-2011 fiscal year to the 2011-2012 fiscal year.  The number of Hope recipients decreased by just over 20% and the total awards given decreased by 39%.  Looked at another way, the average award went from $2920 to $2260.

 The chart clearly shows the problem with the ballooning in award amounts especially from 2002-2003 to 2010-2011 where the award totals doubled while the number of recipients only change by about 20%.  What this indicates is that the tuition and fees are what is crippling the program and not the number of eligible recipients.

Given this data, I am still in the camp that Georgia does not need to “tweek” the eligibility requirements by adding a financial need component or by continuing to tighten the academic requirements.  It is not the number of students in the program, it is the cost increases from the institutions that are weighing down the program.  Until these costs are brought in line, the problem will continue.  The cuts made in 2010-2011 are a temporary band-aid on the problem.  The next round of cuts need to be on the university system’s shoulders and not on those of the students.

Students Earning Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and Grants
Fiscal Year	HOPE Recipients	HOPE Awards
1993-1994	42,796	$21.4 million
1994-1995	98,398	$83.7 million
1995-1996	122,976	$133.7 million
1996-1997	128,353	$153.2 million
1997-1998	136,660	$173.2 million
1998-1999	141,101	$189.0 million
1999-2000	148,194	$208.6 million
2000-2001	169,171	$276.6 million
2001-2002	195,858	$322.6 million
2002-2003	212,630	$361.7 million
2003-2004	222,550	$405.8 million
2004-2005	222,266	$427.0 million
2005-2006	212,578	$436.0 million
2006-2007	207,326	$452.0 million
2007-2008	202,337	$459.5 million
2008-2009	216,144	$522.3 million
2009-2010	248,289	$640.4 million
2010-2011	256,453	$748.0 million
2011-2012	201,651	$455.4 million

 

Disbursements of Georgia’s HOPE Scholarships and Grants to Georgia’s Educational Institutions (SEPTEMBER 01, 1993 – MARCH 31, 2012)
Educational Institution	Recipients	Awards
Public Colleges and Universities	603,236	$4.2 billion
Private Colleges and Universities	156,733	$692.4 million
Public Technical Colleges	781,318	$1.5 billion
Total Scholarships Earned	1,541,287	$6.4 billion

Attribution:  The chart is from the Georgia Student Finance Commission’s website.  The chart provide the Georgia Hope Scholarship Grant and Award Amounts for the history of the program.