February 3, 2006

Protecting HOPE requires taking out the politics

By Senator Tim Golden

When deciding, as a member of the House of Representatives in 1991, to vote for then-Gov. Zell Miller’s proposal for a state lottery that would ensure that all deserving Georgia students would have the opportunity to attend college, I thought of my father.

Had it not been for the GI Bill, my dad would not have been able to attend college. It occurred to me that the HOPE Scholarship could become the GI Bill for today’s Georgia students. And 15 years later, that has proven to be true.

Now, as a state Senator, my concern is for HOPE’s next 15 years and more. I want this wonderful program to be there when my 9-year-old son and all of his classmates graduate from high school. I want it to be there for their children and their children’s children.

I’m proud that I cast that vote in 1991 to make Zell Miller’s dream become a reality. And when it comes to protecting that vision for future generations, I won’t be lectured to by our current governor, who voted “no” to HOPE when he was in the legislature, or criticized by other members of his political party who have made numerous efforts to diminish the program ever since.

On Thursday, I voted against Gov. Perdue’s so-called “HOPE Chest” legislation for one reason: when Senate Republicans voted to engross the resolution, eliminating the opportunity to improve the measure on the Senate floor, it proved they were just carrying out an election-year political stunt instead of protecting lottery funds for HOPE Scholarships and pre-kindergarten programs.

My legislation, Senate Resolution 801, would protect the HOPE Scholarship program from future funding cuts by the legislature by writing the following safeguards into the Constitution:

• No cut could be considered until 35 percent of the lottery reserve funds have been spent. That amount is presently nearly $300 million.
• To remove politics from HOPE funding considerations, a two-thirds vote of both the Senate and House of Representatives would be required on any future cuts.
• A majority vote of the people of Georgia would be required to ratify legislative action to cut HOPE funding.

This proposal, which I would have offered as an amendment to the governor’s bill if I had had the opportunity, would safeguard these funds from the whims of politicians. It would make it as difficult as legislatively possible to cut HOPE funding. The Senate majority leadership’s action to reject a bipartisan approach to the issue proved the governor’s proposal was all about politics and not at all about policy.

The Georgia Constitution already requires lottery funds to be allocated only toward HOPE Scholarships, pre-kindergarten, the reserve fund, technology and capital outlay.

Over the past several years, the current governor and Republican legislators have proposed limitations to the program on numerous occasions in recent years, including by trying to limit students’ HOPE scholarships to a certain number of hours, even if their degree programs required more than that limit, proposing to link HOPE eligibility to SAT scores rather than classroom performance and restricting the amount of HOPE funding for books and fees. The governor also diverted $1.6 million in lottery funds toward creation of a web site.

So, why would the Governor and the Republicans in the Senate now propose what they call protections to a program they opposed and have tried to reduce? The answer is that this is an election year, and even though Gov. Perdue and his friends apparently hate the HOPE Scholarship, they know Georgia voters love it.

If we truly want to protect HOPE from future lottery revenue raids, we need a real plan – not a political ploy. SR 801 would require a bipartisan vote and a vote by the people to touch HOPE or pre-K funds. By rejecting this legislation, Governor Perdue and the Senate Republicans have left a clear impression that they want the ability to cut HOPE funding at any time, just as they have tried to so many times in the past.

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• Sen. Tim Golden is Chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, and represents the 8th District in the State Senate. He is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Higher Education Committee.