Alternative ways we could have changed HOPE

Published 10:20 pm Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Hope Scholarship program has done more to transform Georgia and particularly Catoosa County than any other program since its inception in 1994. Now 248,000 Georgians receive aid to expand their possibilities, including 1,207 Catoosa County students this year. The dramatic growth of Catoosa County in the last decade can be directly linked to Hope. As Democrats, we are proud of the program and seek to defend its legacy. Tragically, Hope was hastily and negligently altered this year by Gov. Nathan Deal and the majority party.

Yes, changes needed to be made to preserve the integrity of Hope, on that we agree. But, let’s take a closer look at the purpose of Hope, the causes of the need to change, and alternatives. Hope was put in place to increase the number of students going to college in Georgia and to keep our brightest students in state. The number of recipients has increased from 42,755 in its first year to today’s level. Indeed the recession has sent record numbers of students back to school with an increase of 22 percent each year for the last three years. Hope had to be changed. Why? Our Republican led legislature has drained Hope by under funding education each year, good years and bad, forcing a tuition increase of 84 percent since 2004. We now spend less per student in higher education than we did a decade ago, and higher ed. has been cut 23.7 percent since 2009.

The rush to pass a Hope “fix” focused on cutting the scholarship offering for all but a few students, those with a 3.7 GPA and a 1200 on the SAT. Sadly, many counties in Georgia would have sent the lottery millions in proceeds, but had no full scholarship winners. The biggest correlation to SAT scores is family income and parental education levels. Clearly this rule favors those born to privilege and discriminates against poorer, rural counties and minorities, only 2.5 percent of African Americans make 1200 or above on the SAT. This evidence, provided by the Senate Democrats forced a change to provide full tuition coverage to the two top graduates at each high school. All others will receive a fixed amount in future years pegged at 90 percent of current tuition, but as tuition rises due to continued under funding, the value will fall dramatically, probably 78 percent next year.

In addition, the Senate Democrats offered an alternative that would have kept the original promise to Georgians by placing a $140,000 family income cap on Hope; remember Hope originally had a $66,000 cap. In Catoosa County 94.5 percent of recipients have family incomes below the cutoff, in neighboring Walker County the number is lower and in Dade no students exceeded the threshold. It is difficult to believe that the 8.3 percent of Georgians with incomes above $140,000 would not go college, even without Hope, while the 68 percent below $60,000 will be increasingly denied the opportunity because of financial hardships. We could have done better.

Email newsletter signup

Another alternative has to do with the percentage of funds going into scholarships. In Georgia only 26 percent of lottery proceeds go to education, far below the national average of 30 percent. Democrats proposed raising the number to the national average, and we believe this is in keeping with the original intent of Hope which called for up to 35 percent. Certainly the lottery corporation has done a good job keeping the income flowing, but more could be devoted to the core purpose.

The Catoosa County Democratic Party asks our elected leaders to revisit Hope next year, and we call on the people of Catoosa County to speak out; this issue impacts you, your pocketbook, and your child’s future. Examine the alternatives brought forth by the Senate Democrats and others. We will not rest until the promise of Hope is restored for as many Georgians as possible. It is simply the right thing to do.

 

Bruce Sloan, Ph.D.

Chair of the Catoosa County Democratic Party