A former city alderman (i.e., council member) once told me that he though it was pretty straightforward in municipal governance to deal with issues of highest priority -- he used the term A to C. But he lamented that local governments rarely adequately addressed important issues at the back of the line -- D to L. This could obviously be a problem in terms of news reporting. Thoughts?
My thoughts on this topic is that ideally, we would like to elect people who will deal with the issues of highest priority first. However, a lot of times promises are empty and people are left with a candidate who has nothing to show for his or her campaign.
I think this could be a problem for news reporting because people depend on journalist to report the important issues, because they feel politicians are not honest. I think if local governments are only focusing on less important issues, leaving news reporters hanging, and an angry public.
I believe politicians deal with the less important issues first, because they need to show the public that they are successful in office. For example, Obama and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Or Obama wanting states to push the dropout age to 18 instead of 16, so more kids will graduate from high school.
I know these do not seem like super important issues, but election season is arriving and he needs to be able to argue points of success during his presidency, so he people will elect him another four years. Same with Edna Jackson of Savannah. City Council spent the majority of time talking about the African American festival. This is not by chance, but the city of Savannah is mostly African American, so it looks good to talk about topics regarding the city's majority.
This becomes an issue for reporters, because they end up only reporting the less important issues and the public ends of feeling cheated with both politicians and journalist.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Georgia's Hope Scholarship Diminishing
In Governor Deal's State of the State Speech on Jan. 11, Deal emphasized how important education was to the state of Georgia. However, in the recent Atlanta Journal Constitution article, "Hope's future may be more dire", the article states that the Hope Scholarship is likely to be an even bigger strain as more students stay in state and qualify.
When my brother graduated from high school in 2003, he received the scholarship in full plus book money. This was when the scholarship was booming, no one even mentioned the possibility of the scholarship dwindling for future students.
When I graduated in from high school in 2008, I also received the entire scholarship plus book money, but that has changed in the last few years. My dad said there was $10,000 difference from when my brother attended and graduated from college and when I attended and will graduate from college. And the dwindling Hope Scholarship is not helping.
I noticed signs of problems, which I am sure started sooner, during the summer before my sophomore year. I took classes at Georgia Perimeter College, a two year school around Atlanta, because it was cheaper. However, when I filled out a form to receive Hope for my class, the state would not allow it and I had to pay $450 for my summer class.
During my sophomore year of college, the University System of Georgia increased tuition at all Georgia colleges and universities; however, Hope did not increase with it. Since my scholarship did not increase, I had to come up with $400 out of pocket. Luckily, I was able to increase my student loan, but since my parents make a certain amount of money, I can only increase it so much. And I don't qualify for the Pell Grant.
My junior was okay, because I was awarded a scholarship which took care of the difference. However by my senior year, I capped my loan amount and since my GPA is not a 3.7 or above, I only received 90 percent of the scholarship and no book money. So I had to come up with $600 per semester ($1,200 for the year).
When I graduated from high school, I wanted to go to the school out-of-state. But my dad convinced me to stay in Georgia because of Hope; but now the scholarship is disappearing. I feel bad for the students who are coming behind me, because I am sure they are staying in Georgia for the same reason.
Listed below are the proposals from the article. I wish people/states prepared for rainy days. How can you emphasize education and do the opposite?
● Eliminate the SAT requirement of the Zell Miller program. Instead, graduating seniors in the top 3 percent of every high school in Georgia would automatically qualify. Democrats said the change would more evenly distribute the number of scholars throughout state, including at smaller, less expensive colleges.
● Change how technical college students receive grant money through the HOPE program. The technical grants are different from the scholarship and tend to benefit students who are older and likely supporting families of their own. Last year, changes meant technical students must for the first time maintain a 3.0 GPA. As a result, 4,200 technical college students lost HOPE.
● Reinstate a cap on family income for students to be eligible for HOPE. Such a cap existed when the program began, but was quickly lifted after the lottery proved financially successful.
● Add a student representative on the state Board of Regents, which oversees the University System of Georgia and sets tuition. Regents are appointed by the governor.
● Create legislative oversight of a new, $20 million student loan program. The program was started last year when lawmakers changed HOPE. The startup money was paid for with lottery revenue.
“As you go forward, there will be fewer and fewer people able to afford college,” Carter said. “You’ve got swaths of Georgia for whom HOPE vanishes and [the Zell Miller Scholarship] won’t help under the current system. That is a failure and an abandonment of the original principles that were sold to the state in order to tolerate the lottery.”
When my brother graduated from high school in 2003, he received the scholarship in full plus book money. This was when the scholarship was booming, no one even mentioned the possibility of the scholarship dwindling for future students.
When I graduated in from high school in 2008, I also received the entire scholarship plus book money, but that has changed in the last few years. My dad said there was $10,000 difference from when my brother attended and graduated from college and when I attended and will graduate from college. And the dwindling Hope Scholarship is not helping.
I noticed signs of problems, which I am sure started sooner, during the summer before my sophomore year. I took classes at Georgia Perimeter College, a two year school around Atlanta, because it was cheaper. However, when I filled out a form to receive Hope for my class, the state would not allow it and I had to pay $450 for my summer class.
During my sophomore year of college, the University System of Georgia increased tuition at all Georgia colleges and universities; however, Hope did not increase with it. Since my scholarship did not increase, I had to come up with $400 out of pocket. Luckily, I was able to increase my student loan, but since my parents make a certain amount of money, I can only increase it so much. And I don't qualify for the Pell Grant.
My junior was okay, because I was awarded a scholarship which took care of the difference. However by my senior year, I capped my loan amount and since my GPA is not a 3.7 or above, I only received 90 percent of the scholarship and no book money. So I had to come up with $600 per semester ($1,200 for the year).
When I graduated from high school, I wanted to go to the school out-of-state. But my dad convinced me to stay in Georgia because of Hope; but now the scholarship is disappearing. I feel bad for the students who are coming behind me, because I am sure they are staying in Georgia for the same reason.
Listed below are the proposals from the article. I wish people/states prepared for rainy days. How can you emphasize education and do the opposite?
● Eliminate the SAT requirement of the Zell Miller program. Instead, graduating seniors in the top 3 percent of every high school in Georgia would automatically qualify. Democrats said the change would more evenly distribute the number of scholars throughout state, including at smaller, less expensive colleges.
● Change how technical college students receive grant money through the HOPE program. The technical grants are different from the scholarship and tend to benefit students who are older and likely supporting families of their own. Last year, changes meant technical students must for the first time maintain a 3.0 GPA. As a result, 4,200 technical college students lost HOPE.
● Reinstate a cap on family income for students to be eligible for HOPE. Such a cap existed when the program began, but was quickly lifted after the lottery proved financially successful.
● Add a student representative on the state Board of Regents, which oversees the University System of Georgia and sets tuition. Regents are appointed by the governor.
● Create legislative oversight of a new, $20 million student loan program. The program was started last year when lawmakers changed HOPE. The startup money was paid for with lottery revenue.
“As you go forward, there will be fewer and fewer people able to afford college,” Carter said. “You’ve got swaths of Georgia for whom HOPE vanishes and [the Zell Miller Scholarship] won’t help under the current system. That is a failure and an abandonment of the original principles that were sold to the state in order to tolerate the lottery.”
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Merging Colleges
Hello Everyone!
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. If you didn't, I am sorry, maybe next year. This time around, my blogs with focus on public affair's issues: local, sate, and national. This semester, I am taking a public affairs reporting class and our assignment is to keep an ongoing blog, similar to the one I wrote last semester.
Our first blog assignment, if you want to call it that is to write about a issue happening locally. The issue I will write about is both a state and local issue, which is the merging of colleges. I find the article interesting, because though Savannah Colleges and Universities are not listed in the merging plans, there were talks a few years ago about merging Savannah State and Armstrong Atlantic, I think it was my freshman year (2008) when people were talking. Someone told me that every ten years or so, the discussion comes up and people debate and chat then it dies down after while.
But, I do wonder now that merging college and universities around the state of Georgia are becoming a reality, if merging Savannah State and Armstrong Atlantic could possibly be a reality as well.
According to the Savannah Morning News article, "Merging colleges makes some magic" the Board of Regents in Atlanta voted unanimously on Tuesday to combine eight colleges into four. The schools include: Waycross College and South Georgia College, Macon State College and Middle Georgia College, Gainesville State College and North Georgia College & State University, and Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University.
No word when this is set to happen, or figures on how much money merging with save and how much money will be put out in order for these merges to happen. I will do a follow up blog when more info comes out, but I found it interesting when Chancellor Huckaby said he avoided targeting the three historically black schools even though they share the same zip codes as the white schools, because of past attempts have failed i.e. Armstrong Atlantic and Savannah State. And I wonder, because he makes it seem like more mergers will come, if race will become a factor of why schools do/will not merge. I know race is a tool used in everyday politics, so I will assume it will play a huge roll in the merging of colleges and universities.
More to come in future blogs, just wanted my readers to start thinking.
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. If you didn't, I am sorry, maybe next year. This time around, my blogs with focus on public affair's issues: local, sate, and national. This semester, I am taking a public affairs reporting class and our assignment is to keep an ongoing blog, similar to the one I wrote last semester.
Our first blog assignment, if you want to call it that is to write about a issue happening locally. The issue I will write about is both a state and local issue, which is the merging of colleges. I find the article interesting, because though Savannah Colleges and Universities are not listed in the merging plans, there were talks a few years ago about merging Savannah State and Armstrong Atlantic, I think it was my freshman year (2008) when people were talking. Someone told me that every ten years or so, the discussion comes up and people debate and chat then it dies down after while.
But, I do wonder now that merging college and universities around the state of Georgia are becoming a reality, if merging Savannah State and Armstrong Atlantic could possibly be a reality as well.
According to the Savannah Morning News article, "Merging colleges makes some magic" the Board of Regents in Atlanta voted unanimously on Tuesday to combine eight colleges into four. The schools include: Waycross College and South Georgia College, Macon State College and Middle Georgia College, Gainesville State College and North Georgia College & State University, and Augusta State University and Georgia Health Sciences University.
No word when this is set to happen, or figures on how much money merging with save and how much money will be put out in order for these merges to happen. I will do a follow up blog when more info comes out, but I found it interesting when Chancellor Huckaby said he avoided targeting the three historically black schools even though they share the same zip codes as the white schools, because of past attempts have failed i.e. Armstrong Atlantic and Savannah State. And I wonder, because he makes it seem like more mergers will come, if race will become a factor of why schools do/will not merge. I know race is a tool used in everyday politics, so I will assume it will play a huge roll in the merging of colleges and universities.
More to come in future blogs, just wanted my readers to start thinking.
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