Ten years ago Monday, lottery tickets began being sold across the state.
This was a hot topic at the time. Many religion-based people were against the idea of a state-wide lottery, despite the revenue it could bring to Tenn. A few others supported the idea just so they could play the lottery. Then, there were the believers who saw that the lottery had the potential to change lives for the better.
Those believers set up the lottery, which has raised more than $2.89 billion for education programs since its inception.
That’s a lot of dough.
What’s more impressive is the number of students who have had the opportunity to attend a college or university in Tenn. because of the additional assistance the lottery scholarship offered.
Today, more than 100,000 individuals benefit from the program each year.
I can think of several people, whom I know personally, who attended an in-state university solely due to the lottery scholarship. They wouldn’t have been able to attend school without it. For them, the lottery made obtaining higher education a reality.
Several of those graduates have gone on to pursue even further education, including medical and law schools.
UTM students have received a total of $13,696,070 in scholarships and grants. Just under 2,000 students get the scholarship each year.
When I came to UTM, I received the HOPE Lottery Scholarship. Like many of my peers, I lost it after my first year.
Part of the problem I see with the TLS is that there isn’t a lot of stability and guidance for the freshmen during that first year.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great program. But, we shouldn’t accept it as it currently stands. Many students lose the HOPE after that first year. Some regain it, but many never do.
For me, the problem stems from lack of advising specifically for the TLS.
Looking back, the only sort of advising I recall having on the TLS was where the university administration shuffled freshmen who attended the Welcome Week into a room. In that room, we were simply handed a sheet of paper with the “rules and regulations” of keeping the scholarship, then told to read and sign it. I’m pretty sure that it was at least the 20th piece of paper we had to sign that day.
After that, we were on our own. Even after I lost the scholarship, I don’t remember receiving any advising specifically on how to regain it. The process could be way different now, but I know that it wasn’t an effective practice back then.
It does seem like the program has improved overall since its inception, but I think there is still room for improvement.
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I agree that it should be based on both financial need and GPA. If there is a breakdown in communication between students and the administration about how to maintain or how to re-qualify for the scholarship, maybe as students we could come up with some ways that we think might help to improve the system. Clearly handing students a pile of papers all at one time does not work. I came to UTM as a transfer student, so I never went through the PEP program that is set up for freshmen. Do they go over the HOPE scholarship during any of the PEP meetings or in any of the classes that the freshmen are required to take? If not maybe they should. What does everyone else think?
Hmm… you would think the administration would advise students more systematically on how to keep the HOPE.
much of the issue with the HOPE scholarship is that it’s administrative costs eat up so much of the revenue it generates.
In my view, the scholarship ought to be based on both financial need and gpa. Giving it to everyone makes no sense.