1. Funding from the lottery is not rising to meet demand of #2 and #3
2. Number of students utilizing the program due to economic conditions forcing more instate students
3. Rising tuition costs well above the inflation rate and is acerbated by item #2

The state of Georgia is currently focused, primarily, on item #1 (Funding from the lottery).  Item #2 (Number of students) was addressed last year by raising the standards for qualifying for the Hope Scholarship.  Item #3 (Rising tuition costs) has not, in my opinion, been adequately addressed at this time.

As part of the focus on funding, many in the state of Georgia are looking at adding Video Lottery Terminals (or VLTs) to the Georgia Lottery program.  These video lottery terminals are, according to Wikipedia, quote: ”

A Video Lottery Terminal or VLT is a gaming machine that allows gamblers to bet on the outcome of a video game.

A VLT is similar to a slot machine, in that each terminal is a stand-alone device containing a random-number generator. Each terminal is connected to a centralized computer system that allows the lottery jurisdiction to monitor game play and collect its share of revenue.” end quote.

The key difference is a video lottery terminal versus a slot machine is that VLTs offer players that chance to play against other VLT players as part of the lottery system whereas slot machines are played against the house odds.  Independent of the definition for a VLT, is the fact that video lottery terminals will put a foot in the door for more casino-like gambling in the state of Georgia.  Will it provide an overall increase to revenue for the Hope Scholarship?  Maybe, probably, but to what cost?

I would be much more interested and supportive if Georgia would put additional, real effort on reducing, or even rolling back, the rising tuition costs in the state.  Tuition rates continue to increase more than the inflation rate with little effort being made by the University System of Georgia to change the course.  In fact, a strong argument can be made, that the Hope Scholarship has had an inflationary effect on tuition rates in Georgia.  Why not?  It is “free money” pouring down from the lottery heavens.  But, the money has been pouring on a pile of sand that is able to absorb far more than can be supplied from the lottery cistern.  Let’s go back to the list above and take a look at item #3, rising tuition costs.  Every $1 that is saved in tuition is multiplied by #2 (number of students) and reduces the proceeds needed from the lottery with a multiplicative effect.  It is the one point of the problem that has the biggest pay back.  Any incremental improvement is magnified to the benefit of the whole program.

What is next after video lottery terminals?  Will off track betting, horse tracks, $5 table games, or other offerings be next on the lottery funding proposal list?  I believe that approving video lottery terminals will be a slippery slope that only leads in one direction, downhill.

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What is clear, however, is that the basic Hope Scholarship Requirements call for an award that covers 84.7% of the 2011-2012 tuition which, for the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech, was $6168 of $7282 tuition.  This left $1114 for the student to cover.  Georgia Tech has just published the estimated 2012-2013 tuition rate which is $7938. The basic award amount will remain $6168 since the award was pegged to the tuition rates in the 2010-2011 school year; therefore, the student or student’s family will cover all of the increase which will mean an amount of $1770 in tuition not cover by Hope.

It is interesting to look at the percentage increase in tuition which is 9%. The increase in tuition not covered by Hope is 59% since all of the tuition increase is now carried by the student.

The tuition, of course, is not the complete picture. Hope does not cover mandatory fees. The mandotory fees for 2011-2012 is $2370 while the mandotory fees for 2012-2013 are increasing to $2442. So, the total tuition plus fees not covered by the basic hope scholarship for 2012-2013 is $1770+$2442 or $4212 for the year.  It is my concern that the universities will start using mandatory fees to gain additional revenue instead of passing all higher costs to tuition.  Tuition increases that are multiples of the rate of inflation or the CPI (Consumer Price Index) are a major cause of the funding shortfall for Hope.

The example that I presented here is for a university system of Georgia Research institution.  For tuition rates at other schools in the system of Georgia, see the student and financial aid link.

The Zell Miller Scholarship still covers 100% of tuition but does not cover fees so, using the example above, the student will need to cover the mandatory fees of $2442.

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HOPE Scholarship Cuts and its Effects in the Classroom

In the wake of the Great Recession, governments everywhere have tried to slash spending. Unfortunately, education has not been spared from these cuts. In the past four years alone, the state contribution to Georgia Tech has been reduced by 90 million dollars or approximately 31%.^[1] Colleges across Georgia have had to cope with shrinking funds, which have led to pay freezes, reduction in faculty, decrease in admissions, fewer degree programs and course offerings, and even a controversial maneuver to merge eight colleges in the University System of Georgia into four. In addition to these measures, universities turn to their students to help make up for lost funds by raising the cost of tuition and adding new mandatory fees.

The inflation of tuition and extra fees has placed increased pressure on the HOPE scholarship, Georgia’s state scholarship program, which until recently has covered full tuition and fees for students who maintain a 3.0 GPA. About 30% of students in the University System of Georgia receive this scholarship.^[2] From its inception in 1993, HOPE has awarded $6.4 billion dollars to help almost 1.5 million Georgians pay for college^[3] without requiring any public funds. A portion of the revenue from the Georgia Lottery has fully sustained the program to this point but now risks falling short of the needed expenses for its continuation. The state legislature’s latest response to this problem was the passage of HB 326, a bill that dramatically cuts the coverage of the HOPE scholarship.

HB 326, which was signed into law one year ago, broke HOPE into a two-tiered system. In order to receive the same benefits as before, students now must maintain a 3.7 GPA throughout high school and a 3.3 GPA in college. This has been renamed the Zell Miller Scholarship. What is still known as the HOPE scholarship no longer covers full tuition, mandatory fees, or book stipends. To receive this, students still must maintain a 3.0 GPA, and in addition, they must score a 1200 or higher on the math and reading sections of the SAT. This requirement represents a significant barrier to entry, considering that 1200 is two standard deviations above the average score of Georgia high school graduates: 978.^[4] The changes to the HOPE scholarship program introduce new problems for students and campuses throughout Georgia.

Adverse effects on campus diversity

All of the five research universities in the University System of Georgia have initiatives to increase diversity on their campuses, but the new SAT requirement makes it even harder for low-income students and minorities to pay for higher education. While 21.5% of white students meet the new SAT requirements, only 2.7% of black students and 5.7% of Mexican-Americans students have high enough scores to be eligible for HOPE. Along with race and ethnicity, family income level is a strong indicator of SAT scores. Only 5.4% of students from households that earn less than $40,000/year meet the new SAT requirement. At the same time, 30.8% of students from households making more than $140,000/year meet the requirement.^[4]The new requirements for HOPE create new challenges in keeping our college classrooms diverse.

Hardships on working students

Information released about the changes to HOPE led people to believe that tuition coverage would only be cut by 10%; however, the disconnect between how students are charged for attending school and how HOPE reimburses expenses greatly increase the amount of money that students have to pay out of pocket. Now HOPE covers only a percentage of tuition based on the tuition from the previous year to insulate itself from new tuition hikes. This year HOPE covered 90% of what it would cost for last year’s tuition, but this percentage will most likely decrease in the coming years. In order for HOPE recipients to get the 90% tuition coverage, they must take more hours than what is considered full-time. Even though full-time student status is given to those taking 12 or more credit hours per semester, the changes to HOPE mandate that students must take at least 15 credit hours to receive the maximum available benefits. This means that the amount that the school charges a student and the amount that HOPE covers can be drastically different. For example, a student is charged the same amount from the school whether they are taking 7 or 17 hours, but HOPE only assists with less then half of the cost for a student taking 7 hours. Similarly, a full-time student taking 12 hours would only have 80% of tuition covered.^[5]

Students with HOPE who have to work their way through school to offset living expenses face a dilemma. Working while taking 15 hours of coursework, in order to get the maximum benefits from HOPE, is an extremely difficult task, especially at the more rigorous schools. Students in this situation are likely to fall behind with their course work and will lose hope if their GPA drops below a 3.0. On the other hand, if they decide to take half of the hours to have time for their job, they will have to pay over $1,500 more each semester.

Students interested in research, teaching assistantships, or internships face a similar problem. Although schools encourage these programs, HOPE scholarship creates mixed incentives for participation. These programs are usually offered for audit or credit hours. Audit hours count towards full-time student status, but they are not taken into account for the 15 hours that HOPE requires. Although audit hours typically mean that a student is paid for participation, students must weigh potentially having to pay around $700 more in tuition to what they would get paid in the program. Receiving credit hours for participation, which are normally counted as free electives, creates other problems. With the new hard cut-off line for the number of hours that HOPE covers, students must be more judicious with what classes they take so they don’t use more hours than they need for their degree. Free electives fill up fast, especially for students that have transferred or changed majors. Often times, gaining credit hours for these programs can be a disincentive to participation.

While the new 15-hour requirement places extra hardships on part-time students, it is completely reasonable for HOPE to award money based on how many classes a student is taking. Typically tuition pricing has only two levels determined by whether a student is taking more than 6 hours or not. A more scalar pricing model that better matches how HOPE determines award amount could potentially solve this problem.

Grades over learning

The increased attention to GPA associated with the HOPE/Zell Miller scholarship runs the risk of further shifting students’ attitudes from learning-centric to grade-centric, which can have disastrous effects in an educational environment. This attitude can result in focusing on completion more than understanding, short-term cramming rather than long-term learning, and even cheating. The shift starts long before students reach college. High school students have intense pressure to keep a 3.7 GPA to be eligible for the Zell Miller scholarship or a 3.0 for HOPE. In some cases, goals for higher grades will motivate students to put forth more effort in their classes, but this may also cause students to avoid challenging courses that may hurt their GPA. Educators may also feel compelled to inflate grades in order to help their students go to college. While every measurement of educational merit has shortcomings, raising the GPA requirement to maintain a full-tuition scholarship exacerbates the existing problem.

Were the cuts to HOPE avoidable?

The point of the HOPE scholarship was to improve the educational system in Georgia by rewarding achievement in school, making it easier for students that can succeed in college go to college, and giving more incentives for top students to stay in the state. The recent cuts to HOPE made sacrifices in all of these areas, although some argue that this was the only way to save HOPE for the future. It is clear that changes had to be made to HOPE, but it appears that the state legislature and governor fell short in the effort required to preserve as much of the HOPE Scholarship program as possible.

Our elected officials took little time to examine or debate HB 326, a bill with tremendous consequences to students and Georgia’s future. While the financial state of HOPE has been a known for years, the bill to overhaul the scholarship was rushed through the legislature, leaving no time for public discourse. The plan to cut HOPE scholarship was unveiled by Nathan Deal on February 22nd of last year, and by March 15th—21 days later—the bill had been passed by both the House and Senate and signed into law by the governor. Students barely knew what was happening and had little time to organize against it. The changes to HOPE were effective the very next semester and applied to both current and future recipients. Students who had worked hard to maintain a high GPA found out that their scholarship was being taken away because they didn’t meet requirements in high school that didn’t even exist when they were there.

The quick passage of HB 326 makes it unconvincing that the legislature spent enough time analyzing alternatives. When HOPE was started, a $66,000 cap was placed on household income for students to receive the scholarship. An alternative proposal suggests that instating a $140,000 income cap would save as much money as the recent cuts. Another plan introduced the idea of having casinos in Georgia that could help raise more money for HOPE much like the lottery does. And in the case where public funds could be used to subsidize the HOPE scholarship, no thought was put into the potential return on investment. If college graduates make on average 50% more in their lifetime,^[6] helping more kids attend college may pay for itself in future income tax revenue.

Maybe the cuts were unavoidable, but how the government dealt with HB 326 gives the public little reassurance that they took every measure to protect HOPE. Students call for the government to reexamine the changes to HOPE and search for better solutions. These cuts are not just hitting students hard; they are also changing the learning environment in our campuses. We call for educators to join us in this struggle as it poses great consequences to the future of higher education in Georgia.

References

1. http://www.gatech.edu/budgetupdate/
2. https://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/with-hope-cuts-coming-962608.html
3. https://www.gsfc.org/gsfcnew/SandG_facts.CFM
4. http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/GA_10_03_03_01.pdf
5. http://www.finaid.gatech.edu/hopezell/hope_rates.jpg
6. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=77

Bethany Sumner is an undergraduate student at Georgia Tech majoring in computer science. Visit her website at http://www.bethanysumner.com/.

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As of today’s final session, none of these appear to be on track for becoming law.  This means that the Hope funding for Georgia will most likely remain pegged to the 2010-2011 tuition costs.  So, the amount required to be covered by each student will rise $1 for $1 with tuition and fee increases.

Here are the bills:

HB 837:
A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 20-3-519.5 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to eligibility requirements for HOPE grants, so as to lower the minimum cumulative grade point average required for maintaining eligibility for a HOPE grant; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

“I’m not sure what the thinking is on this bill.  It lowers the GPA which tends to go against the whole concern of funding availability”

HB 1147:

The post Georgia Hope Scholarship 2012 Legislation appeared first on Hope Scholarship.

Here is a complete reading on HB 0014 introduced by Rep Harry Brooks and Sen Dolores Gresham:

The post 2012 Tennessee Hope Scholarship Proposed Changes appeared first on Hope Scholarship.

They are coming…. the new requirements that is.  Tennessee and Georgia are both once again “tweaking” their respective programs due to shortfalls in lottery based funding and increases in tuition along with increases in student in-state enrollment.

The good news is that the legislative sessions for 2012 are about to come to a close.  This will shed light on what the final new requirements will be for school year 2012-2013.  What is apparent is that at a minimum, the aid amounts will cover a smaller percentage for the next school year than for the current.  There are some worse case scenario proposals being tossed around that would totally eliminate scholarship eligibility for some students.  One proposal would put a financial cap on the eligibility effectively eliminating any students above the cap.  Another proposal would once again make the filter finer for academic requirements.  The requirements would be tightened by increasing the minimum GPA (Grade Point Average) to receive a scholarship.  It seems like hope scholarship changes each year have become the norm.

Do Hope Scholarship Changes need Changing?

From most news accounts that I’ve been watching, the Tennessee legislature has better addressed the issues of funding (revenue) vs tuition costs (expenses) whereas the Georgia legislature has, for the most part, waited and waited hoping for a funding turnaround to solve the problem.  Since this has not happened, Georgia has started extreme tightening which has led to difficulty for students and parents that must budget for colleges costs.  It is interesting to me that in a country where the rule of law and contracts is constitutionally mandated that the citizens of these states allow the legislatures to run willy-nilly each year changing what was promised the previous year.  There should be some consideration to holding the new hope scholarship requirements stable for each entering freshman class for their four year college career, or, at least, hold the requirements steady for 2 year periods for everyone.

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Here is the article which begins to help us understand the Hope Scholarship Changes for 2012:

“HOPE Scholarship recipients may see their financial aid awards reduced even more than originally predicted over the next few years due in part to the Zell Miller Scholarship, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The amount of money available for HOPE funding will be lower than expected due to an excess of Zell Miller Scholarship winners, according to an article published Sunday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Georgia Student Finance Commission said around 5,000 more students have qualified for the Zell Miller Scholarship this year than anticipated. Both the HOPE and Zell Miller awards are funded within the same budget.

Changes introduced in an attempt to help revive the Zell Miller and HOPE programs were proposed to the Georgia Legislature Senate Monday, according to the article in the AJC.

The proposed changes would allow the top 3 percent of Georgia high school graduating seniors to qualify for Zell Miller’s full tuition coverage, eliminating the existing SAT requirement.

The proposal — sponsored by Democrats — would also convert HOPE into a need-based program. A family income cap would prevent some students from qualifying for HOPE coverage.

Gov. Nathan Deal introduced Zell Miller last year — at the same time HOPE awards were being reduced in order to help keep the program alive. At present, about 11,600 students throughout the state receive the Zell Miller award.

HOPE awards will continue to be cut while University tuition is expected to increase. Now, HOPE recipients at the University receive $3,182 a semester. This number is projected to decrease to $2,720 by 2013 and again to $2,461 by 2015.. By this point, HOPE would only cover about half of tuition.

The cost of the Zell Miller Scholarship is expected to grow in response to the award’s promise of full tuition coverage, which would result in further depletion of the HOPE budget.

Kate McCarthy, a freshman biology major from Atlanta, said she thinks difficult economic times have created a frustrating situation for students who rely on HOPE.

“No one is going to be happy about it. It’s frustrating to work so hard for something, and by the end of our four years here, it’s only going to cover a small portion of tuition,” McCarthy said.

The Georgia Student Finance Commission has already predicted an increase of more than $500 in the amount students are expected to pay toward tuition and fees by Fall 2013.

McCarthy said a need-based HOPE program would disqualify her from receiving the scholarship.

“HOPE is really the only scholarship available to me. I think it should be available to everyone because it’s state funded,” McCarthy said. “I like that it’s based on merit rather than on how much income your family makes.” “

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Hope Scholarship Changes Guide

First, I think this blog is a great resource for hope scholarship changes.  So, look around, research what is here, and let us know how to improve the site.

The University system of Georgia has a site that they’ve created just to track the effects of changes to the hope scholarship on students attending colleges and universities in the Georgia system.

Many newspapers are tracking and reporting on the legislative session along with proposals to the HOPE program.  The Atlanta Journal Constitution is a good resource for tracking the many balls in the air with respect to bills in the Georgia legislature and how they might change the hope scholarship.

One of the most important resources available is the tracking site for the Georgia Legislature.  If you know the bill number for the house or senate, you can track the path of the bill as it is being considered.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to track a bill by a meaningful name, you have to do a little digging to find the bill numbers.  Here is the way to track bills that might cause hope scholarship changes.  Use “hope scholarship” in quotes for the keyword and select search.  As of this writing, there are about 18 different bills that in some way affect the hope scholarship.  You can also see each bill’s sponsor if you want to contact them with your input.  Once you take a look at this site, you will understand why it is quite difficult to actually keep up with the many proposals concerning scholarship program.

Of course, no list like this would be complete without the main portal for georgia based scholarships.  GaCollege411 provides a large amount of information for the complete list of scholarships funded by the state of Georgia, including hope.  It is also the main site for each student’s personal profile and tracking point for information required for these awards.  Although the site does not track changes and proposals, once the hope scholarship changes are ratified and made into law, the site will be updated with the correct detail.  Here is the hope link.

I hope these additional resources will help you with your research and desire to track hope scholarship changes.

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Hope Scholarship Changes 2012

Once the state of Georgia and the state of Tennessee completes the debates, discussions, and votes on final legislation for the 2012-2013 school year, we will update this page with the final hope scholarship changes 2012.

As you might expect, most of the proposed changes revolve around these key areas:

1. Should the hope scholarship be changed to have a financial component added to the qualification?
2. Should some parts of the program be eliminated such as the GED grant?
3. Should the GPA requirement once again be changed?
4. Should the amount of the reward be reduced once again?

The Hope Scholarship is first and foremost a merit based scholarship.  The graduating high school senior that worked hard to earn a 3.0 or higher GPA should not be told “good job”, but we can’t actually reward you because your parents make too much money.  Do we tell the 6″4″ 285lb linebacker “good job” on your impressive athletic ability, but we can’t actually reward you because your parents make too much money.  It reeks of a double standard.  If you have an opinion on this, contact your representatives in your state house and senate and let them know how you feel.

Once the final changes are passed by Georgia and Tennessee, this page will be updated with the hope scholarship changes 2012.

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The Hope Scholarship is now broken out into two programs based on GPA graduating from high school and while in college.  The Hope Scholarship now has a cap based on 90% of the 2010-2011 tuition rates.  This means that the award

amount for Hope will go down over time with respect to the tuition rates at each institution assuming that tuition rates rise each year.  The Zell Miller Scholarship does not have a cap.  Book fees are eliminated.  The hope scholarship changes are mandated by the state legislature of Georgia.  The hope scholarship changes are a result of economic changes that have resulted in a decrease in revenues from the Georgia lottery.  These revenues provide the funding for the awards tied to the program.  Along with funding decreases has been an increase in both the number of students staying in the state of Georgia for college and in tuition rates from the state colleges and universities.  With the tuition rates increasing at a rate higher than the inflation index along with more students applying and qualifying for the scholarship, funding is not keeping up with demand.  Therefore, the Georgia legislature stepped in to decrease the award levels and added additional requirements for students to be eligible for the highest award dollars.

The table below details the  Hope Scholarship Changes.  This reflects changes made for the 2011-2012 school year.  See this blog post for 2012 changes to hope scholarship.

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