Lottery ticket sales in Georgia apparently haven't been keeping up with rising tuition costs. That means changes to the state's HOPE scholarship program. This pioneering state scholarship program relies upon Lottery sales money to provide college and university tuition assistance.
HOPE scholarships, like many scholarships, require that students meet certain academic standards in order to qualify for the assistance. With the changes that Georgia Governor Nathan Deal recently signed off on, only high school seniors with minimum 3.7 grade point averages and a 1200 SAT score are to qualify for 100 percent tuition, while others are to receive 90 percent of their tuition costs, a Classes 2 Careers blog recently noted.
Students in Georgia are generally eligible for HOPE scholarships in instances where they graduated from an eligible high school or home study program with minimum 3.0 grade point averages. Both the Georgia high schools and home study programs as well as the in-state colleges, universities and technical schools that students plan to attend must be eligible for this scholarship program. Students receive different amounts, including allowances for textbooks, depending upon the types of institutions they plan to attend.
Some of the scholarship money also helps to pay for prekindergarten programs in the state. The scholarships aren't restricted to public colleges and universities either. With the changes, however, students who carry out their studies at private colleges and universities in Georgia would see their HOPE scholarship money reduced as well. Instead of $4,000 in scholarship assistance, an Associated Press article noted, these students would be provided $3,600 in scholarship money.
Changes to the HOPE scholarship program affect students as early as high school, who would have to take more challenging courses in order to qualify. Students also would have to keep their grades up in order to maintain the scho larship assistance, the Associated Press article noted. Also expected to change is the commission that retailers are paid for lottery ticket sales. The changes to the law call for reducing lottery commissions from 7 percent to 6 percent, the Classes 2 Careers blog noted.
The HOPE scholarship program was established in Georgia in 1993. Of the states to imitate the program, Arkansas is one of the most recent. US Department of Education Deputy Secretary Tony Miller has provided the HOPE scholarship programs in both these states as examples of programs that can positively influence graduation rates. These scholarships, he said, increased continued studies toward a Bachelor's degree by as much as 10 percent. Another state, West Virginia, is said to have created its Promise scholarship program with a provision that also requires students to take enough credits per semester courses so that they graduate on time.
Some have argued that scholarship programs that are based on merit are unfair to students from lower income households. More rec ently, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece on March 11 suggested that the new requirements would make disproportionate winners of white students as well as students from upper-class families, where parents earn more than $140,000. Students who would be adversely affected, the opinion article noted, are black students, those from middle class families and students from rural areas of the state.
Students apply for the HOPE Scholarship by completing a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which is available online. FAFSA provides students with electronic results as to the types of government assistance they might expect to receive for their college and university pursuits. Students have until the last day of 2010-2011 academic year classes or tests to file their FAFSA applications as a means of obtaining HOPE scholarship funds, but the website recommends that students apply as early as possible so that these education scholarships are credited to their accounts early at the institutions they plan to attend. Don't forget that many online universities may also accept this type of tuition assistance!
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