FREE ESSAY ON HOPE FOUNDATION

HOPE FOUNDATION

Dear North Carolina Residents:
In Georgia, there is a program going on that helps out the student immensely. The Georgia
State Lottery is used as a device to send hard-working students to college for free.
Since the start of the lottery, over 488,00 kids have gone to college on the HOPE
scholarship due to the lottery (Message from the President 1). Also, the lottery helps
pay for pre-kindergarten facilities and programs, as well as computer and technology
upgrades for their high schools through the HOPE foundation. North Carolina needs to take
a serious look at the revenue Georgia brings from its lottery and think how it could be
beneficial for North Carolina students.
First, the lottery helps out a tremendous amount of students through the HOPE program.
The way that the Hope scholarship works is that all Georgia high school students that
graduates with a 'B' average or higher becomes eligible to receive a grant to help cover
the cost of tuition, book, and mandatory fees at any public Georgia college or university
and a $3,000 dollar scholarship to any private college (Educational Uses of Lottery
Proceeds 1). Also, they will provide full tuition, books, and fees to any technical
institute in the state of Georgia. That sounds like a whole lot of incentive for young
adults to make a 'B' average in school. I just don't understand why North Carolina does
not have the same incentive for our children. To keep the college student a good student,
you must also keep a 'B' average in college to keep your scholarship. Georgia has given
more than 1 billion dollars toward college bound students since 1993 (HOPE scholarship
1). North Carolina has no programs of this sort. Two years after starting college, HOPE
recipients have a higher G.P.A. (grade point average), and have earned more credit hours
than their counterparts who do not have the HOPE scholarship according to The Council For
School Performance (Council for School Performance 1).
Second, the Georgia Lottery helps the pre-kindergarten children out by donating money to
start new programs to give them a head start in school. There is a department that
directs all the money into the pre-kindergarten areas of schooling called the Office of
School Readiness or OSR. This is a one-stop children's preschool department specifically
authorized to administer the Georgia Lottery Pre-Kindergarten Program. The OSR is
responsible for licensing 941 child care learning centers for small children and
providing meals for children through the United States Department of Agriculture
Children's Food Program (OSR 1). This kind of pre-schooling could be very helpful in
North Carolina. If I had a child, I know that I would want them to have the best
education possible, no matter what age they were. This program is designed to give
children a head start they will need to compete in today's dog-eat-dog world. I hate to
say it, but North Carolina is falling behind other states in education. 
The last project that the HOPE program involves itself in is the elementary, middle
school, and high school technology situation. The funds taken from the lottery for this
program are used for instructional technology, which consists of computer hardware and
software, automation of media centers, satellite dishes and/or networking. Also, these
funds are used towards technology centers for training teachers and administrators in how
to incorporate technology into the curriculum and providing technology and media
specialists to support this advanced technology in the schools (Educational Uses of
Lottery Proceeds 1). This program also makes it possible for all libraries, schools, and
other state institutions of learning to have internet service lines. They even use some
funds to put up fences, lighting, and surveillance cameras to make Georgia's school's
safer for its children.