Thousands of technical school students may be quickly pinched by attempts to cut costs in the HOPE program when Gov. Sonny Perdue signs a much-heralded reform bill into law.
Perdue is scheduled to sign the HOPE reform bill Monday at Flat Rock Middle School in Tyrone, but it probably will have a retroactive effect on the 100,000 technical school students who receive HOPE grants to pay tuition, fees and books.
The Georgia Student Finance Commission is planning to count the credit hours that students have taken during the current school year against the law's new limit of 95 quarter hours for grant recipients. The provision goes into effect July 1, but credit hours that students took as far back as last summer or fall would count against them under the commission's plan.
Full-time technical school students take, on average, about 45 to 60 hours a year. So by the end of the fall or winter quarters during the upcoming school year, some of them will have used up their HOPE grant eligibility.
Rules implementing the changes are expected to be considered by the Student Finance Commission board Tuesday.
"This is horribly unfair to our students, and I believe it is likely to result in a very negative impact on technical students, technical colleges, Georgia's businesses and ultimately our state's economy," said Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who sent the commission's board a letter asking it not to implement the law retroactively.
However, Shelley Nickel, director of the commission, said, "We are compelled to show some savings next year. If we don't start the clock ticking until this fall, you would not have any cost-savings for years."
The limits would save about $2.2 million during fiscal 2005 by starting the process of removing technical school students from HOPE rolls during the upcoming school year.
The state's $16.4 billion budget for the upcoming year, which Perdue also is expected to sign Monday, includes the $2.2 million in savings. But the HOPE bill and the budget also contain two changes that will wind up costing more than $8 million extra next year, despite cries that the program could run short of money in coming years.
One change in the bill — costing $4.5 million — will allow thousands of part-time private college students to get HOPE scholarships. Another change, costing about $3.5 million a year, transfers the expense of a state program from the Department of Education's budget to HOPE, which is funded with lottery proceeds. The program allows high school students to earn college credits.
The program transfer — part of Perdue's budget plan — has raised questions because state law prohibits lottery proceeds from being used to supplant state education funds. In other words, programs currently funded in the DOE budget are not supposed to be shifted to lottery programs. The aim is to keep lawmakers from cutting education funding and replacing it with lottery money. When the law was passed in the early 1990s, state officials promised lottery money would go for extra programs, like HOPE scholarships, not existing ones.
Perdue officials argue the high school-college credit program once was funded by the lottery and later shifted to the DOE budget, so it does not violate the law.
Nonetheless, some lawmakers said it's peculiar that the state is increasing HOPE costs on one hand and cutting back on the other.
The HOPE reform bill was pushed through the General Assembly this year because state officials predicted lottery-funded programs would begin draining their reserves by 2006 or 2007. While lottery sales continue to climb, officials say HOPE's expenses are rising faster, fueled by rising college enrollment and increases in tuition.
Full-time public college students with HOPE scholarships get full tuition, mandatory fees and a book allowance if they have a B average. Tech school students seeking certificates or diplomas receive the same benefits but don't need the B average.
Nickel said the credit limits on the HOPE grant were designed to stop technical school students from seeking certificate after certificate, or diploma after diploma.
But Taylor said it's unfair to make the technical school limit retroactive. Some provisions of the HOPE legislation don't take effect until July 1, and others don't kick in for a few years.
"There is no other aspect of HOPE for which we changed the rules in the middle of the game," the lieutenant governor said. "There is a basic unfairness in making these changes take effect retroactively."