GA Senate Dems Reflect on HOPE

Sincerely, 

Dan Matthews

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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 17:25:30 -0400
From: flowersliz123@gmail.com
To: danmatt@hotmail.com
Subject: Release - GA Senate Dems Reflect on HOPE

MEDIA ADVISORY June 26, 2013 For Immediate Release Contact: Liz Flowers Senate Democratic Caucus 404-291-4755 flowersliz123@gmail.com GA Senate Dems Reflect on HOPE Thousands of Georgia students face barriers to college Atlanta, Ga. - June 26, 2013 - The Georgia State Senate Democratic Caucus paused today to reflect on the 20th anniversary of the HOPE Scholarship program, lauding its success and offering up proposals to strengthen the program. "While we cannot ignore what the HOPE Scholarship Program has accomplished since 1993 - nearly $6.8 billion has been awarded to 1.6 million students- we must also understand that in its current form HOPE is masking rising tuition costs in our colleges and universities and we are underfunding higher education in the general state budget," said Sen. Steve Henson, Senate Democratic Leader. Henson said the initial HOPE Scholarship program was designed so that all qualified students could have the chance to attend college. Now, with rising tuition rates, many lower and middle-income students cannot afford college. These HOPE scholarships were initially intended to pay the full tuition of students with a 3.0+ GPA. However, the flagship HOPE Scholarship program, in many cases, pays only 80 percent of tuition costs. "Today, thousands of Georgia's students are once again being locked out of college, even though they have achieved scholastic success, simply because of finances," Henson said. In 2011, a two-tiered HOPE Scholarship system was established to offset rising tuition costs. Full tuition is paid now only to those students with a 3.7 or higher GPA and those students with a 3.0 GPA receive only partial tuition. Compounding matters is the state's disinvestment in funding higher education costs within the state budget. "Unfortunately, the two-tiered Republican reform to HOPE means the state has continued to move way from the promise of HOPE," said Sen. Vincent Fort, Senate Democratic Whip. "State college enrollment dropped for the first time in memory and once the reserves are empty, more scholarship cuts will have to be made." Senate Democrats warned that unless the state raises higher education funding, and with information from the Georgia Student Finance Commission, in the future the HOPE Scholarship may pay for less than half the cost of college, making it difficult for working class Georgians to send their children to college. "Our most economically disadvantaged students, particularly those in the rural portions of our state, will find it increasingly difficult to bridge the gap between tuition costs and HOPE allowances," Henson said. Senate Democrats have offered up a number of legislative ideas over the past two years, including a proposal that ensures the top students from every Georgia high school can apply for the HOPE Scholarship. Senate Democrats said that a commitment to economic development and prosperity in Georgia means making education a priority. "The HOPE scholarship must be reformed in a fiscally responsible manner that provides HOPE to the most recipients possible. The state of Georgia simply must invest more in higher education. Otherwise, we cannot ensure that scholastically qualified students in low and middle-income families will have a path to higher education," Fort said. # # #

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