HOPE trending toward bankruptcy

One of the most popular, successful and productive education programs ever launched in Georgia, or any state, for that matter, is the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship/Grant program.

It has funded postsecondary academic or technical education for more than 1.7 million Georgians. It has made college a reality for academically deserving students who otherwise would not have seen college as even a remote economic possibility. It has made Georgia institutions of higher learning the choice for many of the state’s best and brightest who might otherwise have gone elsewhere.

And now, according to a study by a private organization formed to save the program, it is threatened with financial extinction.

An independent analysis by veteran Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Nancy Badertscher for the Committee to Preserve HOPE Scholarships projects that if current trends continue, the program will be out of funds in about 12 years.

This in spite of a record $1 billion-plus in Georgia Lottery funds to the state this year.

HOPE is “a victim of its own success,” Badertscher told WXIA-TV in Atlanta. “This fall at UGA, 98 percent of new freshmen will be either on the Zell Miller or the HOPE Scholarship. So you can imagine, that’s not a cheap thing.”

It’s certainly no secret or surprise that the program has been squeezed since the flush economic climate of its early years. The Georgia General Assembly had to tighten eligibility requirements in 2011, changing the program from full scholarships to almost-full scholarships, except for the academically elite achievers who qualify for the Zell Miller Scholarship.

But that change, according to the report, resulted in an 89-percent decrease in full scholarships, “forcing thousands of students out of the program.” (If even part of the cost of college is prohibitive, it might as well be all.) For others, student loans have been the alternative: About 62 percent of Georgia higher-ed students have college loans, with an average student debt of $26,518.

Hardest hit, the report concludes, have been the Technical College System of Georgia: HOPE Grants for students at the state’s technical colleges have dropped a staggering 69 percent since the 2011 adjustments.

The Georgia Student Finance Commission, which administers HOPE, issued a statement that while the commission had not yet studied the Committee to Preserve HOPE report, such long-term analyses depend on “many factors that can impact program costs — including tuition and enrollment.”

The University System of Georgia has held the line on tuition the last two years — a trend that, needless to say, will not go on indefinitely.

The options would seem obvious, though the solutions are anything but. The state needs to (a) find more money; (b) award smaller scholarships and grants; and/or (c) raise the bar on academic qualifications for getting scholarships and grants in the first place.

Option (a) is ideal but unlikely, (b) and (c) unfortunate for everybody. The last thing Georgia needs is fewer people having access to higher education.

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 4:34 PM with the headline "HOPE trending toward bankruptcy."