A HOPEful future for college students?: Pros and cons of new HOPE proposals

Georgia’s exceptional HOPE Scholarship program was designed to keep its brightest college-bound students in the state and to give them an incentive to keep up their grades.
Starting in 1993, HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) has rewarded over 700,000 students with over $2 billion to contribute towards higher education. Now, 11 years later, the program is in danger of exceeding its budget.
Suzanne Buttram, director of Financial Aid at Georgia College & State University, said the easiest solution is to “get back to basics where HOPE began.”
In order to avoid going into debt, changes must be made concerning HOPE Scholarship eligibility requirements. If changes aren’t made, it is predicted that the HOPE program will be forced to use reserves from their 2006-07 budget year. The outcome would be $434 million in debt two years later.
Buttram said she would first look at cutting the book allowance, which now totals $150 per semester.
Dr. Gary Henry, director of the Applied Research Center at the Carl Vinson Institute and professor at Georgia State University, disagrees.
“The proposal of eliminating the book allowance should not pass since it would decrease the incentive for high school students to earn a ‘B’ or better average,” Henry said. “It could cut the college going rate and the level of preparation of high school graduates.”
Another proposal is to modify the HOPE checkpoint. Currently, students are judged after each 30 attempted hours. However, if checkpoints are modified, each student will be judged after each year. This proposal is a popular choice among members of the HOPE Joint Scholarship Study Commission.
“Some students, especially at the University of Georgia, are cutting back on hours their first year in college to maintain eligibility,” Henry said. “Modifying the checkpoint would reduce the number of students who game the system.”
According to Henry, this recommendation would encourage students to take a full load, increase the universities’ efficiency in increasing college graduates and would give considerable benefit to non-traditional students.
Dr. Bruce Harshbarger, vice president of student affairs at GC&SU, agrees but has a slightly different recommendation to this proposal. He believes that HOPE funds should be “cut off” for students who perform poorly in their first semester.

Harshbarger claims there is a “certain percentage of each entering class that comes to college with no intention of succeeding,” and that percentage is there to “party until the money runs out.”
“Under the current system, the HOPE Grant continues to finance their partying for a full year after they ‘earn’ a 0.0 GPA in their first semester,” Harshbarger said. “If you get under a 2.0 in your first semester and take 15 hours in the fall and spring, you cannot mathematically be at 3.0 after the spring.”
A third proposal under debate is the recommendation to add a standardized test score for HOPE eligibility. Whether it’s SAT scores or the Georgia High School Graduation Test, this would save the HOPE program about $44.3 million a year.
“In general, I’m a supporter of the SAT,” Harshbarger said. “When combined with other factors, such as grades and subject tests, the SAT adds to the predictive validity of projecting students’ academic success in their first year, but all by itself, it is not a particularly strong predictor of college grade attainment.”
The HOPE Joint Scholarship Study Commission predicts that adding a required SAT score would reduce the incentive to put in effort across four years of high school, and they have recently suggested a required passing score on all eight of high school end-of-course tests.
Henry favors the recent end-of-course test proposal, but not the SAT proposal. He says that they would reinforce Georgia’s accountability system and “reduce school-to-school variation in what is taught.”
“I favor using the end-of-course tests since they test material that all Georgia high school students should learn,” Henry said. “Imposing this would fall disproportionately on students who need the scholarships, minorities and lower-income students.”
HOPE not paying for private colleges is the last major recommendation being considered.
“Why should state money go towards paying for private colleges when it’s a choice for the families?” Buttram said.
According to Henry, private college HOPE scholars are now eligible to receive $4,045 from the state each academic year, while the average benefit for HOPE scholars attending a public college or university in 2003 was $2,443.
“For greater equity between these two groups, the Legislature should consider reducing the private HOPE scholar’s award by half to $1,500, which would put the total award for these students at $2,500,” Henry said. “By 2008, this would save $25 million per year.”
According to Buttram, HOPE awards for Spring 2004 will remain unaffected by the proposals. The changes are predicted to go into effect in July 2004.
“Nothing is definite yet,” Buttram said. “Anything could actually happen.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 19 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry