The HOPE scholarship program is a movement by some states to bring merit based scholarships to graduating high school students. Some, like Georgia’s Hope Scholarship Program, are renewable through the full college term; while others, like South Carolina’s Hope Scholarship, are for the Freshman year only or for some limited time. Funding for the programs tend to be from profits taken from lottery programs.
Like many government based programs, the scope and costs of the program have increased while the funding sources have stayed the same, gown down, or increased more slowly than the spending increases.