Governor Deal is right to revisit this issue. Hope and self esteem goes hand in hand. While a stellar grade point average is to be admired and celebrated; not all of us have that gift. There is a different gift that comes instead. Those students that score in the 2.0 range bring a different set of gifts. Society needs them both. Hope without a chance is incongruent. I celebrate Governor Deal for revisiting this issue.

Maintaining a C average in high school should not qualify you to attend college at the public's expense, though you are free to enter anywhere that will take you on your own dime. Get yourself into a community college and get a B average if you are serious, then apply for taxpayer subsidies. Students need to take their high school opportunities seriously if they wish to attend college paid for by others. Those who aren't academically "gifted" or inclined do not belong in college at all.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use,..3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Mathew 7:1-3

I hope that they do lower the GPA so those who need/want to participate in the Hope can.

“Those members which seem to be weaker are necessary..God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, 25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another…”1 Corinthians 12

The US is falling behind other nations in education and has been for a while, yet here we are talking about subsidizing our weakest students? Why? Everyone is afforded the same educational opportunities when they walk into public school. By high school, students know full well that college or a job is ahead of them and that grades matter. Why should those who throw their educational opportunities away be given even more opportunities? If anything, we should be raising the standards for all children, making them compete, rather than rewarding mediocrity or worse. Scholarships should be 100% merit based.

“If you set a trap for others, you will get caught in it yourself. If you roll a boulder down on others, it will crush you instead.” Prov 26:27

Don't raise the GPA. That is the problem with our education system, when people can't make the cut, we just keep lowering the bar.

Apparently the re-election campaign for Deal has officially started.

This proposal is nothing more than pandering to voters.

Public money given for average performance is "incongruent" with the ideals of what scholarship funds should be used for.

Georgia HOPE = Georgia Helping OUTSTANDING Pupils Educationally. What is OUTSTANDING about a 2.0?

Maybe the Technical Colleges in Georgia should stop wasting money on superfluous things like sports programs and "student activities" thus lowering the cost of taking classes. If these schools would stick to the basics of educating a workforce rather than trying to be what they are not - large universities or even small 4 year colleges - maybe those 3600 students would not have had to drop out.

By the way those 3600 are only 2.5% of the 145000 that received HOPE in 2010.

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" Matthew 7-3 (NIV)

Randomly quoting scripture does not really add to the conversation. The sawdust and the plank is one of my personal favorite scriptures, but I think the danger in saying it to others is that maybe that means you are the one with the plank complaining about your brother's sawdust. I think it is meant more for self reflection than for accusing others....

A low GPA is the indicator that the Student does not apply him/herself; rather party or play than study. So to all those who THINK this is a good idea, please explain how is the student going to succeed in College with poor study skills? Personally, this is a waste of money that could have gone to a more deserving student. I believe in giving everyone a fair chance but you have to work for your rewards not just be handed one for participation.

Aside from the impact of using up more HOPE funds, Gov Deal does not seem to understand the direct impact that high education standards (for teachers, students, facilities and administration) has on a community. Housing/real estate values go up, crime goes down, and businesses are attracted to and decide to invest in the local economy. It is a gap in his own education, or he just does not care.

After more than 30 years in public schools, I can tell you if you half-way try you can get a 2.5 to 3.0 teachers give extra chances, extra credit, do overs and so on everyday. They will tutor after and before school. I will add...over the last 10 or so years curriculum has been dumbed down a lot. Students today would not be able to do what they did 30 years ago.

as a former college professor, I've had students in class who couldn't write a grammatically correct sentence consistently, nor a concise paragraph. Those low-level students do not belong in college. I would agree with lowering the GPA to 2.0 for technical schools, though, but keep 3.0 for college. Even that is a low B average.

So now the "just average" kids will be able to get hope? I hope they have to maintain that average or better to keep it.

I agree with longtime resident. Some students are natural academic achievers. Many are not.. There are a million jobs out there for them. Anything that would help make them productive citizens, able to support themselves, and/or a family is great. Investing in our community does not mean they all need to be lawyers or doctors.

HOPE = Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally. It does not equal helping just because you sign up...

One aspect I haven't seen addressed is that many students purposefully take easier classes to ensure their eligibility for the HOPE. Lowering the standard would encourage students to take a chance on those AP or IB classes of higher rigor that are far better at preparing them for college anyway.

I am not sure Deal’s plan will help in the long run. I suspect many students who only accomplish a 2.0 through their high school experience have not learned the study disciplines necessary to be successful at the next level even with Hope scholarship assistance.
Some with economic challenges beyond those Hope can remedy will need to assume loans and when they fail to qualify after their second year will be faced with debt they will have trouble paying off. Also, just skating by with a 2.0 does not convince me that they will have the workplace skills as well. (teamwork, communication, etc.)
Certainly for employment in the STEM career fields which DEAL wants to attract, we already see limited Georgia success to compete with North Carolina and other states with a more productive system of educating for jobs of the future. That $5 to $8 million would be better spent in giving K-12 teachers training to be more capable in science teaching and funding programs that provide more girls and majority students access to STEM education.

Back in the Stone Age, when I went to junior and senior high school, in addition to the academic courses there were "shop" classes, often homemaking skills for the girls and trade skills for the boys. While it wasn't equitable, it was recognized that not everyone was college material, and taking the electrical and woodworking and automotive and cooking and sewing and typing classes did get the students ready for entering the real world and not going to college. Even in my highly overcrowded high school, we were in school for at least 6 hours a day, 180+ days a year. If you did well in shop, you could easily get into a public technical school. The HOPE scholarship would be good for students who have proven their technical abilities. But a student who doesn't care and doesn't try and doesn't have any interest in school does not need to be supported by the public to spend the next couple of years screwing around at a technical or academic institution.

Alright, so after reading these comments, I must first say I am ashamed to share the state with some of the people who responded. Some of the comments are outright ridiculous.

1. First of all, let me quickly just say: Keep the religious comments out of here. What does this article have to do with religion? This isn't the deep South, this is metro Atlanta.

2. Many are talking about high school. Tell me one time that the article says anything about high school. In fact, it clearly mentions about students losing the scholarship when their grades fall below 3.0. Obviously, those students are in college.

3. Very good students fall below 3.0 at schools like GA Tech because of how rigorous the studies are. To get into GA Tech, they were likely straight A students in high school or close to it. I went to a very competitive university up North and although I graduated with a 3.1, I was below 3 for my sophomore and part of junior year. Had I had the HOPE scholarship, I would have lost it. And for what? I ended up pulling it together and graduating with a 3.1 anyway! Including an A in quantum computing. Note that even though I dipped below 3 at the university for a time, in high school I was one of the top students, A/A- GPA, stellar SATs and SAT IIs, Eagle Scout, etc.

4. Finally, for those that don't know what the word "tech" means, it means engineer, IT, architect, etc - not shop.

5. Finding good software engineers, among others, is hard for tech firms.

cont..

6. We have a shortage of engineers, and an overabundance of people with liberal arts degrees. In fact, that's the biggest reason there's unemployment as high as there is. Because although some companies are begging for talent domestically, people are not qualified with the right kinds of degrees. I guess one alternative to decreasing the number of liberal arts students is to incentive students to go into engineering and architecture careers.

Finally, if they are going to let students keep the HOPE scholarship when they fall below 3, that's fine, however they need to make the students take part in a performance improvement plan where they at least attempt to take some efforts to get back over a 3. I think it will be tough for some students to do that since at some universities, a 3 or higher pretty much means no life. Unfortunately, part of college is learning about yourself. However, if they are on an improvement plan, and are forced to actively monitor their status, report on progress, have a mentor assigned, etc then it is unlikely that they are going to fall any more in GPA and probably will increase somewhat. Maybe not up over a 3 in some cases, but it should at least increase.

"I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze..." —Exodus 31:2-4
See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.