That’s when the president called on his old friend Zell Miller. Over the years, Clinton and the Georgia governor had spent hours chatting about education issues. Miller, it seemed, had the solution to Clinton’s problem: HOPE scholarships. (HOPE stands for Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally.) In Georgia students with good grades get a free ride through college. The program got raves from voters; it was crucial to Miller’s re-election. Clinton loved the idea, too, and cobbled together a large-scale version of the plan, promising to make college available to everyone. HOPE scholarships are now the centerpiece of the proposals Education Secretary Richard Riley will announce in Houston this week. Some higher-ed officials are already hailing it as the next GI Bill. But the idea is also meeting doubts that it can work on a grand scale–and fears that it may further drive up college costs. Also it’s unclear how Congress, bent on budget-balancing, will react to a new middle-class entitlement.
In Georgia, the scholarship program Zell Miller proudly calls his ““baby’’ has been a dramatic success. Any student who graduates from high school with at least a B average is eligible for free college tuition plus a book allowance at any of the state’s colleges or universities. The state keeps picking up the tab as long as a student keeps up his or her grades. Those who dip below the minimum are still eligible for free tuition at technical institutes. Even kids who choose a private college in Georgia get a $3,000 grant.
The result? In the three years the program has been in place, 239,000 students have received HOPE money. At Georgia’s two highest-ranking institutions of higher learning–Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia–an astonishing 97 percent of this year’s in-state freshmen are not paying any tuition or fees. Even their books are covered. The program costs about $190 million a year, all of which comes from the state’s lottery.
HOPE was just one of several innovations the 64-year-old governor, a former college teacher, has sponsored to improve the state’s poor education record. Last year Georgia became the first state in the country to offer free daily pre-kindergarten classes to every 4-year-old in the state. The program, which now enrolls 60,000 kids, costs $210 million a year–$20 million more than HOPE. Once again, the lottery picks up the tab. The idea is to prepare students for school before they have a chance to get behind. ““Every dollar spent on pre-K is going to save you $10 down the line–on welfare rolls, unemployment, the cost of prison,’’ Miller says.
Clinton has no plans yet to adopt the pre-K classes. But Miller has talked to the president ““dozens of times’’ about how to make the HOPE program work nationally. Without a lottery to foot the bill, though, Clinton’s six-year, $42 billion version is much less ambitious. Instead of a four-year free ride, Clinton’s HOPE offers students who keep up a B average a $1,500 tax credit and a $10,000 tax deduction for the first two years–just enough to cover admission at a community college. Families making more than $100,000 don’t qualify. That’s a far cry from Georgia’s deal.
Colleges were quick to endorse HOPE. But critics warn that cash-strapped community colleges may raise tuitions to meet the $1,500 credit–and inflate grades to preserve B averages. Some of the harshest criticism of the scholarship came from Clinton’s own staff. When the president first brought up the idea, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and National Economic Adviser Laura D’Andrea Tyson argued that it was a costly gimmick. But Clinton, his eyes on the election and education reform, wasn’t about to give up on a scholarship called HOPE.
Performance on standardized tests still lags, but Zell Miller (right) and Georgia get good grades for reform efforts including:
Early ed: With money from the state lottery, Georgia guarantees preschool classes for every 4-year-old.
College-level work: Over the past 10 years, the number of high-school students taking advanced-placement courses has nearly tripled. In addition, students can take college courses at the state’s expense, often using the state’s new telecommunications network that links rural areas to state campuses.
Charter schools: They’re publicly funded but are free to experiment with their approaches. Georgia is the first state to allow an unlimited number of these programs.
