As the economy continues to slump, making sporadic turns for better and worse, students across Georgia are concerned about the budget cut regulation for the renowned Hope Scholarship that was signed into law on Mar. 15.
The Hope Scholarship, initiated in 1993 by the Georgia Lottery for Education Act, provides tuition aid to eligible high school graduates with a 3.0 GPA that enroll at a Georgia college or university. Introduced by Georgia Governor Zell Miller in 1991, the scholarship aimed to keep academically advanced students in-state rather than seeking enrollment elsewhere.
The Georgia Lottery Corporation projects declining lottery revenues if the state initiates a fixed rate of a 35% Hope payout, which was the original goal in 1991. However, in 2010 the rate fell to 26.1%, while the amount of students seeking Hope continues to rise. As lottery funds have declined due to the slowing economy, and reserve funds approach depletion, some fear that the Hope Scholarship will go the way of disco. But, the new cuts may provide an answer. Some of the proposed changes include:
• Removing the book grant, or decreasing it from $300 to $150.
• Decreasing funding for students attending a Georgia public college or university with a 3.0 GPA by 10%.
• Reserving full-ride awards to the top 10% of Georgia students, with a 3.7 GPA, 1200 SAT, and/or a 26 ACT.
SCAD Associate Director of financial aid in Savannah, Kim Beveridge, explained that these cuts would allow the Hope program to continue at a ninety percent funding level, decreasing the average SCAD student’s Hope award of $4,000 per academic year to $3,600.
“Overall what is going on with the program is that Hope is being decoupled from tuition,” Beveridge said. The decoupling of tuition is mainly aimed toward students attending public universities where the disbursement is tied to tuition rates, which have the ability to fluctuate with rises in tuition costs.
Private universities, such as SCAD, are on a flat-rate disbursement program, which does not change due to tuition increases or fees. The only qualifier for private disbursement is the state budget and the allocation of those funds. The public colleges and universities will feel the affects of the budget cuts more than the private, but those already struggling to make tuition, whether public or private, may experience some difficulty in the future.
The Zell Miller Scholarship, which is a new scholarship created through the same legislature as the budget cuts, will allocate funds for the top ten percent of students graduating from high school with at least a 3.7 GPA and maintaining at least a 3.3 GPA while attending a Georgia college or university. The only question facing private university students will be whether the Miller Scholarship will be extended outside of the public sector, which will be decided by the next academic year.
“It’s bad… but it’s not as bad a people think it will be,” said Jason Parrish, Assistant Director of student financial services.
Ultimately, there will be cuts, and there will be changes in the educational climate as competition for full rides become fierce, but this is merely a reflection, or glimpse, into the opposition students will face when they begin to look for employment.