Georgia Students Lose Hope

Kevin Brawley

One of the biggest problems students are faced with when reaching the collegiate level is the tuition. Whatever way you look at it, it is expensive, in-state or out-of-state. For some paying in-state tuition, though much cheaper than out-of-state by a large margin, it is still a burden to pay college costs. Luckily for those people, some states have merit-based scholarships that pay for tuition, cost of books, and other fees. Georgia has been a model for just this sort of scholarship since 1993, when the lottery began funding the HOPE scholarship. As HOPE has become very commonplace, many Georgia students rely on this opportunity as a way of keeping out a major debt when they graduate from college. It also takes a major burden off of the parents of many students as they no long need to pay for tuition if their student can maintain a 3.0 GPA throughout high school, and although this is a small award, it is very helpful when it comes time to buy the incidental things associated with college. Included in the HOPE award also, is a book stipend and a student fees stipend, and these sometimes come about very unexpectedly when students are too far into the college process to back out. In those cases, HOPE can be a life saver.

Unfortunately, as the economic situation worsens, state legislators have to make decisions as to how to best cut spending in order to pay for the most necessary things. And more often than not, scholarships are one of the first things to go, even scholarships as depended upon as HOPE. Outrage spread across college campuses in Georgia as newspapers like Georgia Tech's Technique and UGA's Red and Black broke some of the first articles concerning this issue. How were students supposed to finish their college career without HOPE? Surely there would have to be a grandfather clause of some sort, they hoped. Many expressed that they were going to college where they were specifically because of HOPE. What now?

Students plan to organize protests to keep the scholarship going, and many will petition the state board if the budget cuts become more certain, but now the real question remains: how can the higher education community ensure that, even in a bad economy, the largest concern of new (and returning) students is addressed? How can we show legislation that funding for college students is among the most important expenditures in their budgets, and should not be among the first things cut?