The AJC had several great stories this week to mark the 20th anniversary of the HOPE Scholarship. The stories trace the changes in the program over the years and the criticisms of those changes.
One fact cannot be denied: HOPE has exploded.
In the first year, 42,796 students earned HOPE at a cost of $21.4 million in lottery proceeds. Last year, 180,206 students received HOPE at a cost of $411.6 million. Part of the early growth came from the expansion of the eligibility pool.
In the initial years, HOPE was limited to students from households that earned $66,000 or less. As lottery sales boomed, the income cap was raised to $100,000 before it was eliminated in 1995 to the delight of middle-class parents.
As it turned out, HOPE did not have its largest impact on whether students in Georgia went to college, but where they went. One study concluded that only 4 percent of the money spent on HOPE went to students who might not have otherwise gone to college.
Now that HOPE funds are outstripping lottery proceeds, there is talk of restoring an income cap. Today, I share a response to
