Senator Jack Hill, the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has introduced a bill to allow HOPE scholarships based on need, with the explicit intent that these scholarships “be targeted at the neediest students”.
Now, before going too far into this post, I should note that this is in ADDITION to current HOPE scholarships, it is NOT replacing them.
With that said, HOPE is one of those entitlement programs that is costing the State quite a bit of money – money that, as I’ve been discussing for the past week on this site, the State really doesn’t have right now. The problem for legislators is that, like Social Security at the National level, HOPE really has become the third rail of Georgia politics.
But HOPE really does need reform. It has produced unprecedented grade inflation, and high school teachers feel constant pressure to award a “B” in the class, even for students that literally did not turn in a single piece of paper in the entire semester. I know this, because I was once a high school teacher and was pressured to do just that.
The allegations that a “B” in one system doesn’t mean the same thing as a “B” in another, while exaggerated to some degree, do hold a degree of truth as well. However, at the same time by the very laws of competition, a student who is the valedictorian in a graduating class of 60 may be only middle of the pack in a graduating class of 600.
What can be done to save HOPE? That honestly is one of the very difficult questions legislators and other policy makers face. I can almost guarantee you that the proposed tax on lottery tickets won’t help matters here.
But as to what exactly can be done, I honestly think a gradual transition to some combination of both merit AND needs based is probably among the top ideas. But we must still worry about not incentivizing detrimental behavior. For example, if we put an income cap on the family eligibility at say $250K annual income, families around the $200K annual income range have a reason NOT to try to further better themselves. If they try to better themselves and gain an additional $51K in income, all of a sudden they have to pay for their kids’ education.
But this actually brings me back full circle and gets me out of sounding like a Republican: If we remove public money from education completely and make ALL education efforts private, EVERYONE has a reason to continue to better themselves. At that point, EVERYONE will be competing for private scholarships or paying for their own education through some combination of work and loans. With everyone seeking to better themselves, as happens in a capitalistic society, the economy continues to grow. The recession ends, and more and more opportunities become available for everyone as more people are more willing and able to donate to private charity again.
HOPE is one entitlement that could be phased out relatively quickly – if our legislators had the cajones to do it. A law could be passed in the remaining 14 days of this Session that says basically that the incoming freshmen in the 2010-2011 school year would be the last class eligible for HOPE. That would give students, parents, and private charities four years to gear up to be on their own in paying for college, rather than driving down the highway at 120 mph and slamming into a brick wall, as ending the program right now would be.
Within the existing structure, I think this bill, SB 496, is a good one.
But I still say government involvement in education, including HOPE, needs to end. Completely.
