HOPE scholarships are great PR but awful policy. Basically, the poorest people in Georgia are paying for the children of mostly middle and upper-class residents

HOPE scholarships are great PR but awful policy. Basically, the poorest people in Georgia are paying for the children of mostly middle and upper-class residents to go to UGA and Ga Tech for free. Of course the state points out the handful of low-income students who also benefited from a HOPE scholarship, but these are the minority of recipients, and they would almost all have qualified for significant grants and financial aid anyway. The most offensive aspect, I'll state again, is the fact that the poorest residents overwhelmingly purchase lottery tickets while the wealthiest residents overwhelmingly receive the scholarships. It also makes the state university (UGA) much, much harder to gain admission to, since demand for a free college education is high. Applications (and thus necessary GPA/SAT scores) are through the roof... Ivy-qualified students (again, often from wealthy families) are often encouraged to go to UGA for free instead. HOPE already vastly exceeded its budget once, leading to cutbacks and reforms about a decade ago, with many students losing scholarships or suddenly not qualifiying. A more recent report says it is likely to run out of funds again in 2028. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/new-analysis-shows-hope-scholarship-to-run-out-of-money-by-2028/293407419 https://www.11alive.com/article/news/local/new-analysis-show...