Georgia lawmakers are working to steer the HOPE (Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally) Scholarship away from what some say could be dire straits. With the soaring demand for the scholarships, together with the recent slump in the economy and rising college tuitions, state officials worry the fund will be depleted.

Gov. Sonny Perdue earlier suggested using the SAT college entrance exam as a requirement for receiving the merit-based scholarship.

I have yet to hear a reasonable argument against this plan.

The SAT is a national test aimed at comprehension and thinking skills. Last year, with an embarrassing average of 984 out of a possible 1600, Georgia students scored lower than every other state in the nation.

Georgia has tried a number of things to raise its ranking of 50th out of 50. Adding a minimum SAT score as a factor determining eligibility for the HOPE scholarship would clearly increase motivation for achievement on this test, in the long run improving our humiliating national rank. It would put responsibility back on the students' shoulders and reinforce the HOPE's claim to be a merit-based scholarship.

In the fall of 2000, 58 percent of the entering freshman class members who received the HOPE lost it within the first semester because they could not maintain the necessary "B" average. The state wasted $18 million worth of tuition for these freshmen.

Since the beginning of the HOPE program 10 years ago, more and more college prep students are receiving a "B" average or better. Grade inflation has gone through the roof, wasting money on kids who can't cut it in the college arena.

In 1993, 17 percent of entering freshmen were drawing money from the HOPE scholarship.

By 2001, that number had leaped to 64 percent. Georgians and parents cannot seriously believe that our students grew that much smarter in eight years.

The HOPE program needs a standard, one that can't be fiddled with on the classroom level.

Complaining about the SAT disenfranchising minorities or women because they don't score as well is groundless. There's no reason why skin color or genitalia should affect performance on a test.

I'd sooner see the SAT and HOPE linked than book funding pulled or tuition money reduced. Giving deserving students less of their merit scholarship is only punishing them because legislators are too afraid to be more selective.

If the SAT is not an acceptable standard, there are other solutions that could assure that the most deserving kids receive this achievement scholarship.

The state could set a limit on the number or percentage of recipients. This would ensure that we give the money to only the best 10 percent, say, of Georgia graduates attending Georgia public schools.

The fund would be more stable that way because you always know exactly how many students would receive the cash. No guesswork involved.

No matter what the Georgia Legislature decides, reducing the amount paid is no decent answer. This can only hurt the desire for academic achievement among our students and the attendance at our public universities.

As the scholarship stands today, four years of tuition is no more than many of the true merit students are offered at other universities around the nation. If we want our best and brightest to remain in our state, we must not reduce the amount of money awarded them for their achievement.

The answer that will ensure HOPE for the future is to increase not stinginess, but selectiveness.

If we say it's a merit-based scholarship, then why not back it up? Raise the bar, I say, with a minimum SAT requirement or a maximum level of recipients.