Wednesday, April 26, 2000
WRITER: Megan McGovern, 706/542-3527
CONTACTS: Chris Cornwell, 706/542-3670;
David Mustard, 706/542-3624
TERRY COLLEGE ECONOMICS PROFESSORS RECEIVE NSF GRANT TO TAKE CLOSER LOOK AT THE IMPACT OF GEORGIA'S HOPE SCHOLARSHIP
ATHENS, Ga. -- A National Science Foundation grant will fund new research by two University of Georgia economics professors into some of the intriguing questions surrounding the impact of Georgia's pioneering HOPE Scholarship program.
Chris Cornwell and David Mustard of UGA's Terry College of Business will receive nearly $125,000 from the NSF for research titled, "Keeping HOPE Alive: An Economic Analysis of Georgia's Lottery-Funded Scholarship Program." The two-year grant will be used to study the impact of Georgia's merit-based college scholarship and programs like it spawned in other states.
"Georgia's experiment with the HOPE Scholarship affords a unique opportunity to learn how merit-based financial aid programs impact higher education," Cornwell said. "Little serious research has been devoted to the program given its size and role in the creation of other programs like it."
The empirical study will focus on three main areas of inquiry: the characteristics of students who lose HOPE, the scholarship's effects on post-secondary enrollment decisions, and its effects on student's academic behavior at college.
In September 1993, Georgia established the lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship. The program is one of the largest educational subsidies in the U.S. with two unique characteristics: the scholarship is awarded based entirely on merit, and there is no income cap. Since its inception, more than $720 million has been distributed to over 420,000 students attending in-state public, private and technical institutions.
Georgia's HOPE program is the prototype in a nationwide trend toward replacing need-based aid with merit-based aid, Mustard said. President Clinton has described Georgia's HOPE as the model for the federal HOPE tuition tax credit. More than a dozen states have passed similar versions of the Georgia program.
"Our long-term research agenda will address many economically interesting and policy-relevant issues," Mustard said. "Given that HOPE is the first program of its kind there are many questions to be answered especially with the establishment of subsequent HOPE-like programs."
To earn the HOPE scholarship, Georgia high school students must graduate with a "B" average. To retain the award once in college, students must maintain a "B" average with a minimum number of credits. The award covers tuition, fees, and a book allowance of $150 per semester for Georgia residents attending public colleges or technical institutes in Georgia. Students who qualify for HOPE and elect to attend a private in-state institution receive a fixed payment comparable to the amount awarded to those attending public institutions.
The National Science Foundation is an independent U.S. government agency responsible for reviewing and promoting research and educational projects in science and engineering.
Deepa Sridhar, an economics Ph.D. student at UGA, is collaborating on the research with Cornwell and Mustard. Sridhar's project, "Enrollment Effects of Merit Aid: A Case Study of Georgia's HOPE Scholarship Program," received a $12,000 dissertation grant from the Association for Institutional Research at Florida State University.
To read a description of the NSF/HOPE research agenda, visit http://www.terry.uga.edu/hope.
Mustard and Cornwell will publish their research findings on this Web site as they become available.
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