Georgia HB 324 has been signed into law.  This removes the requirement that the FAFSA be completed by all Georgia resident students applying for HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship funds.  Instead, we understand that GSFC will reinstitute the GSFAPPS application.  We have provided this Hope Zell Miller Scholarship Update to try and provide the most recent information.

The information below is based on information provided by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) May, 2011. Additional details are available at GAcollege411 and the hope scholarship knowledge base.

HOPE and Zell Miller are merit based scholarship programs available to students who have met the University System of Georgia and the GSFC residency requirements and are enrolled in an undergraduate degree seeking program. Students may receive HOPE or Zell Miller, but NOT both at the same time. This page outlines the differences.  Since the law for this program can change each year, please check back often for further Hope Zell Miller Scholarship Update information.

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With respect to the Hope scholarship tuition award, I will set the 2010-2011 tuition rate at 1.00 since it is the base line used for future tuition awards. Next each subsequent year’s tuition award amount will be calculated. It is a little complicated since tuition rates increase every year due to tuition inflation and the Hope Scholarship award amount is tied to a fixed tuition amount from the 2010-2011 school year, the actual Hope Scholarship award amount must be normalized to account for the tuition inflation rate occurring every year since 2010-2011 and the fixed 90% of the 2010-2011 tuition rate.
School Year Hope Scholarship Coverage

2010-2011       1.0 (Tuition) Plus mandatory Hope qualified fees and $300 in book allowance
2011-2012        tuition increase of 3.0% or 1.03 in terms of 2010-2011 tuition
2011-2012        =0.9/1.03 or 0.8738 (Normalized to 2010-2011) No mandatory Hope qualified fees and No book allowance
2012-2013        tuition increase of 2.5% above 2011-2012 for most universities but higher for UGA (5%), Ga Tech (6%), and Ga State (3.5%). I will use the University of Georgia rate of 5% since this is the largest university in the state of Georgia. Given this, in terms of 2010-2011, the rate is 1.0 * (1.03) * (1.05) or 1.0815
2012-2013        0.9/1.0815 or 0.8322 (Normalized to 2010-2011)

In terms of percent of tuition, it looks like this:

School Year Hope Scholarship Coverage
2010-2011 100%
2011-2012 87.38% (Note, the coverage was never 90% due to inflation rate in tution of 3% from 2010-2011 to 2011-2012)
2012-2013 83.22%

This is only the tuition amount and does not include the $300 book fee and Hope qualified mandatory fees that were eliminated in the 2011-2012 term.

As you can see, tuition inflation is quickly eroding the tuition coverage and the rate of the Georgia Hope Scholarship tuition coverage continues to drop each year due to the multiplicative effect of year over year tuition inflation. Also, each college and university is adding to or increasing mandatory fees which becomes an additional component not covered by this exercise.

We can easlily project the Georgia Hope Scholarship tuition award amount for the next five years. If the tuition rate increases 5% year over year, the coverage looks like this:

School Year Hope Scholarship Coverage

• 2010-2011 100%
• 2011-2012 87.38%
• 2012-2013 83.22%
• 2013-2014 79.26%
• 2014-2015 75.48%
• 2015-2016 71.89%
• 2016-2017 68.46%
• 2017-2018 65.20%

In other words the Georgia Hope Scholarship will support less than two thirds of the tuition rate by 2017-2018 which is a short 7 years from the 90% of the 2010-2011 tuition pegged by the Georgia state legislature. If the University System of Georgia continue the 5% year over year tuition rate of inflation for an additional 5 more years, the Georgia Hope Scholarship tuition coverage will drop to around 50% of the tuition rate in the 2022-2023 school year. This does assume that lottery funds actually provide the money required and that the state of Georgia does not change the Hope program.
What does this mean for the Hope Scholarship? Either the Hope tuition coverage will need to be reset to a percentage of a future school term tuition amount, or the requirements for the Hope Scholarship will need to be tightened considerably to reduce the number of eligible students being awarded the Hope, or the University System of Georgia will need to stop the over the top inflationary spending which drives up tuition rates higher the normal inflation.

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 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.

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.

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Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program

HOPE — Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally — is Georgia’s  scholarship and grant program, formed in 1993,  that rewards students with financial assistance in degree, diploma, and certificate programs at eligible Georgia public and private institutions.  There are four Hope based programs:  Hope Scholarship, Hope Grant, Zell Miller Scholarship, and Hope GED Grant.

All four HOPE programs require students to meet basic requirements. An eligible student must:

1. Be a legal resident of Georgia;
2. Meet academic achievement standards required by the program or the college;
3. Be registered with Selective Service, if required;
4. Be in compliance with the Georgia Drug-Free Postsecondary Education Act of 1990;
5. Meet HOPE’s U.S. citizenship or eligible non-citizen requirements;
6. Be in good standing on all student loans or other financial aid programs;
7. Not have exceeded the maximum award limits for any HOPE program; and
8. Meet enrollment requirements

HOPE Scholarship

The HOPE Scholarship program is for students that have demonstrated academic achievement and that are seeking a college degree.  You can become eligible for the HOPE Scholarship, either by graduating from high school as a HOPE Scholar or by earning it while in college (see HOPE Scholarship requirements).

 HOPE Grant

The HOPE Grant program is for students seeking a technical certification or diploma, regardless of the student’s high school grade point average or graduation date (see HOPE Grant Requirements).

Zell Miller Scholarship

The Zell Miller Scholarship program is for students who have achieved higher academic achievement. To become eligible, a student must graduate from an eligible high school with a 3.70 GPA and a minimum score on the SAT/ACT (see Zell Miller Scholarship requirements).

Each of the Hope programs have award limits.  The amount of the award depends on the type of school the student is attending, the number of credit hours the student is enrolled in, and the specific rates of the college (see award amounts).

HOPE GED Grant

Georgia’s HOPE GED Grant is available to students who earned a General Education Development (GED/high school equivalency) diploma awarded by the Technical College System of Georgia after June 30, 1993.

The Grant provides a one-time $500 HOPE award that can be used towards tuition, books, and other educational costs at an eligible public technical college or public or private college or university. Full-time enrollment is not required. Students must use their HOPE GED Grant award within 24 months of the date of their GED diploma (See HOPE GED Grant requirements).

Overview of Hope Scholarship Changes

Changes to the hope scholarship program.

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