Campaign  Georgia
A  Political  Journal

Georgia’s   Lottery:  Corrupting   Education

The lottery granted $44,000,ooo in HOPE scholarships in 1994: the figure rose to $357,000,000 in 2002.  That’s lot of fast “free” money.  How has it corrupted education, from pre-kindergarten   through college  and university?

Well, in some respects, we don’t really know.  The lottery education programs were set up by executive order for the most part, but there has been no comprehensive oversight and evaluation of their effectiveness, administration, and consequences  since inception.  Not until 2003 did the legislature set up a commission to study various lottery issues, and that was done after concern arose the lottery  might run out of money and the gravy train would end.  It was not done out of concern for  the validity of the  lottery funded programs themselves.

Qualifications, for instance.  Obviously, a student should  be capable of and prepared for   college level work before going to college. Otherwise the student’s time is wasted, the college’s time is wasted, and the taxpayer’s money is wasted.  If  the student received a scholarship, that money is wasted, too.

High school grades and college board exams are the best means to predict success in college.  The HOPE program requires a “B” average in high school for students to get the scholarship, and a “B” average to keep it once they get to college. Problem is each school district decides what a “B” average is.  “B” average may mean a score of  80 in some districts, and 83 in others.  This is the point at which corruption enters the heart of the system.

Every school district wants as many kids as possible to go to college or technical school.   As a result,  many of them have been motivated to drop the grade point average, which increases the number of students eligible for the scholarship.    But miraculously changing “C” students to “B” students does not prepare them for college work.

There are also rumors and complaints the curriculum in many schools has been dumbed down to help more students get “B” averages.   That may be hard to detect and quantify.   However the curriculum has been dumbed down for political and other reasons for more than a generation.  

The process doesn’t stop at the school level, either.  There is no reason to doubt both public and private colleges in Georgia have engaged in watering curriculum down to help kids remain eligible for HOPE scholarships.

 Colleges are motivated to get students, and keep them once they’re enrolled.  The more students a college has, the more funds are available. It’s  even truer of public institutions of higher learning, since tuition pays only a fraction of the cost for operating these colleges and universities.  For every tuition dollar a student pays to a college in Georgia’s University System, Georgia  taxpayers pay several more.   The influx of HOPE scholars has required appropriations  of  state tax funds for the University System by hundreds of millions of dollars since 1994, for classrooms, dorms, staff, etc.

So what do the colleges do with the marginal HOPE scholars they receive in such large numbers?  They have remedial programs, courses for students to take to get them ready for college after they have arrived.  Truth is, this has been going on for years as the quality of public education has declined, but undoubtedly HOPE  has increased the number and scope of them in some colleges. 

But like the high schools from which these students have graduated, the colleges have also dumbed down the curriculum.   “Basket Weaving” courses have been with us a long time, but does anyone seriously doubt they have increased in recent years?  The Georgia Hope Scholarship Program cannot help but have had a deleterious effect on the quality of at least some college instructional programs.

But despite the dumbing down of curriculum and extensive remedial programs, statistics show that huge percentages of HOPE scholars fail to make it through college.  They even fail to make it through sophomore year.

If Georgia’s public institutions of higher learning  are being  adversely affected and state taxpayers are ripped off  by the lottery scholarships, private colleges and universities are also affected.  While no doubt some of them have not lowered their standards and watered down the curriculum, others surely have.

The HOPE scholarships have no doubt been a real savior to private colleges with few students.   Some of them may well have closed their doors within the last decade had it not been for HOPE.  These institutions, largely dependent on HOPE, are not likely to fail many students.  They may prefer to lower the quality of  the curriculum and grant degrees.  In addition, some of these colleges are religious institutions, and presumably  HOPE  is paying for  degrees in sectarian theology.

HOPE scholarships for public colleges and universities include funds for fees and books.  House Speaker pro tem DuBose Porter recently pointed out in debate that these fees have risen  steeply since the inception of  HOPE, and there are reports they are being misused by colleges to finance construction projects and other purposes fees were never meant to cover.

These are some consequence of  a  “world wide” free scholarship  program which graduates kids from high school,  sends them  to college unprepared or unable to do college level work, and has so far cost state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Georgia’s Lottery Part I: The Dark Side of  Hope.

Series will continue in issue III

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