Monday, March 14, 2011

#654. The end of "Hope" and "Bright Futures"

Hope and Bright Futures Scholarships are in trouble, thanks to the poor no longer funding them
No, these aren't the campaign promises of Mein Obama crashing down to reality. They are the names of Georgia and Florida's lottery-funded scholarship programs that are both in dire financial situations. With lottery revenue down -- a sure sign that the depressed economy is denying Black people the opportunity for wealth creation -- the Hope Scholarship is seriously underfunded. Bright Futures is in a similar predicament.

The Hope Scholarship has allowed students to go to college with tuition paid for thanks to the proclivities of the poor in Georgia who find the investments in lottery tickets the soundest long-term monetary decision:
...the program is funded through the Georgia Lottery, it represents an income transfer from the poor, who are more likely to play lottery games, to the well-off who are more likely to receive the scholarships. Neither of these issues will be analyzed in this report because both deserve extensive treatments in their own right. Instead, we will analyze the policy’s effect on the educational performance of students and their access to the University System of Georgia (USG).
With the onset of the recession, Georgia's poor were unable to buy these tickets and the Hope Scholarship lost a large chunk of its funding. Now its minority students who are left in the cold, with increasing scholastic demands being required for acquiring a scholarship. The Atlanta Journal Constitution publishes a predictable sob story:
Some students fear they may be priced out of college. They are applying for jobs and reconsidering double majors and study abroad because of the cost. Parents are reviewing their finances to see what more they can contribute. Some have encouraged their children to take easier high school classes to boost their grades to a 3.7 grade-point average to qualify for a new full-tuition scholarship.

Georgia State University freshman Myeia Bautista was the first person in her family to graduate from high school. Even with HOPE, she works and took out loans. She doesn't know how to pay for college with a smaller scholarship.

"I'm going to have to drop out," she said. "I may just transfer to a technical college. It's a lot cheaper, and I think I can afford that. But that's not my dream."

About 10 percent of HOPE recipients will qualify for a new full-tuition scholarship. To earn the Zell Miller Scholarship, students must be the high school valedictorian or salutatorian or graduate with at least a 3.7 GPA and a combined 1200 on the math and reading sections of the SAT.

Stephanie Kratofil's daughter attends North Gwinnett High School and has earned a 3.9. She just registered for junior-year classes, and Kratofil tried to sway her from taking a college-level Advanced Placement English course out of fear her grades would drop. Her daughter disagreed but did decide against taking a gifted math class.

"I hate having to think this way, but what if her grades drop and she doesn't get an A?" Kratofil said. "You want to push your child to succeed, but we also want to get that full scholarship."
The Hope is gone for many of Georgia's would-be college students.  For Floridians, the future isn't so bright anymore:
At public universities, 88 percent of in-state freshmen qualify for the scholarships. At the University of Florida, it's 98 percent, while the median household income for those students is $105,000. 

Studies, including one from Harvard University's Civil Rights Project, have shown merit-based scholarships tend to most benefit middle- and high-income students who would have likely gone to college regardless of the aid. 

"We talk about areas to save money. This is one place we're ripe for it in the next few years," said Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville, chairman of the Senate's Higher Education Committee. 

The cost of the program has ballooned from $70 million when it began in 1997 to $437 million today. Some say that's because the scholarship requirements are too low. 

Currently, to get money, students only need a 970 SAT score, which is below the national average. It will be raised to 980 next year and to 1050 by 2014. Some believe that's still too low, as it puts students in the 56th percentile of SAT takers in the country. 

Bright Futures, which serves 181,000 students, is funded primarily by Florida Lottery. But last year, the Lottery's $338 million allocation wasn't enough to cover the growing number of eligible students, so the Legislature used $99 million in stimulus and other one-time dollars. 

The program has gone through a series of changes in the past two years. Its scholarship for A students with high SAT scores used to pay all tuition and fees, while students with a B average got 75 percent scholarships.
Now, they get a fixed dollar amount — $3,750 for top scholars taking 15 hours a semester, or about 76 percent of actual tuition and fees at state universities. The others get $2,820, or 57 percent of expenses. 

While the value of Bright Futures is falling, tuition at state universities is quickly rising. The Legislature authorized public universities in 2009 to raise tuition by up to 15 percent a year, until the state's historically low costs caught up to the national average. 

"This is going to be a disaster, especially in this tough economic time," said Helene Kessler, a college and career adviser at Boca Raton High School. 

When junior Boris Bastidas started attending Florida Atlantic University in 2008, his scholarship covered 75 percent of his tuition and fees. It's now down to 57 percent. Factoring in the proposed cuts and a likely tuition increase at FAU, the scholarship might only cover 40 percent this fall. 

"It's striking to me that in a period of a few years, they would change the structure two or three times," said Bastidas, 22, of Tamarac, who also receives a federal Pell Grant. "It's very unsettling."
He said the change could eat into his savings. 

While state officials say they have to rein in the program, some are concerned about the effect on minority students. A report showed 49 percent of black students are in danger of being disqualified once the SAT score goes up to 1050. That compares with 37 percent of Hispanics and 26 percent of whites.
"That seems to be a disproportionate unpleasant impact on one group of people," said Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando. 

State Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, chairwoman of the subcommittee on Higher Education Appropriations, said those are only projections. But she said she hopes it serves as a warning to educators that they need to better prepare students. 

The Bright Futures program was started in 1997 as a way to keep Florida's top students in state. The scholarships worked but also contributed to the state having some of the largest and most crowded universities in the country.
The paltry academic requirements needed to get a Bright Future scholarship in Florida could be one of the reasons the program is underfunded now. Of course, those low qualifications are needed to make sure Black students aren't denied money that their parents undoubtedly contributed to the fund in the first place.

Same goes with Georgia.

Just take a look at the FCAT scores from Florida and you'll see what they reveal. No surprises. 

Black people have long considered both the Hope and Bright Futures Scholarship racist. Now that both are being severely cut-back due to the lack of discretionary income for low-income Georgia and Florida residents (ahem, largely Black), students in both states are mad. Raising the requirements for the scholarships will have the inverse effect of what lowering the standards for the police test in Dayton will help create.

If you live in the South, you can't move away from the problems anymore. The crumbling school system in Memphis  have been dissolved and those whites who fled that city are now stuck with the bill of paying for the failures of a people they have no desire to live near (but they love cheering for the sons of those people on the athletic fields).

The same could soon happen in Birmingham, where wealthier -- read "whiter" or "better managed" -- school districts could be forced to pay for the failures of the Black school district.
Hope? Bright Futures? No more. Isn't it time, then, for us to at last accept that failing to admit the obvious only means that everything will fail in the end?
America's adherence to egalitarianism threatens to destabilize the country.Not in 10 years, not in five years, not even in two years.

Austerity measures enacted in states with high minority populations will see destabilization immediately.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes the slow end of Hope and Bright Futures, programs that were crafted to include the lowest common denominator. Financially this set-up is no longer tenable. Raising academic requirements means that some children will be cut out of the reallocation of lottery money that poor people in those states could have seen earning compound interest in a bank account.Free tuition for college isn't a right.

Only in Black Run America (BRA) could potential college students believe that the burden for paying for their higher education should fall upon the shoulders of the lottery players of the states of Florida and Georgia.







29 comments:

Unknown said...

LOL! I enjoy watching every facet of BRA crumble every day. It's disintegrating (probably a new favorite word of mine) in ways I didn't think of, which makes it even more enjoyable. The ranks of those-who-can-see have to be getting larger.

Anonymous said...

Rich minority members exploiting their poor brothers and sisters? Say it ain't so...

Anonymous said...

Egalitarianism is laudable. It's "radical egalitarianism," along with "radical individualism," the twin holy grails of modern neoliberalism, that are the overarching evil roots of modern America's decline. See the great conservative scholar Robert Bork's seminal 1996 treatise "Slouching Towards Gomorrah--Modern Liberalism and American Decline"

Sagat said...

A report showed 49 percent of black students are in danger of being disqualified once the SAT score goes up to 1050. That compares with 37 percent of Hispanics and 26 percent of whites.

1050?! They're crying about raising the score to 1050? That's out of a possible 2400! They give scholarships out to retards now? What's the point of even going to college if you're that dumb? What the hell are they going to get a degree in? Woodshop?

Florida resident said...

The statement
"At public universities, 88 percent of in-state freshmen qualify for the scholarships. At the University of Florida, it's 98 percent, while the median household income for those students is $105,000"
was quite a news for me.

Reminds me a joke about a lady after her first bridal night:
-- Sure, I have heard that they are cutting something. But that short ?!?

xxxxx said...

Check out the Bill Gates Foundation Millennium Scholarships. No white people allowed. Only non-whites can score one. From a rich Asian family that immigrated here three years ago? You can get one. You from a poor white family with ancestors who fought in the Civil War? Take a hike

Sheila said...

Ah yes, the famed "talented tenth." All those brilliant black college graduates, who entered with SAT scores that wouldn't qualify a White for community college remedial classes, and graduated feeling both further entitled and further alienated from their DWL benefactors (like DaWon's Michelle). Sort of reminds me of the black woman who frequents this site, with her attempts to write standard English (it's "fare" not "fair," you poor dear). It's rather ironic that she's demonstrating her ignorance and deficiencies while proclaiming her self esteem and purported intelligence.

Anonymous said...

"...while proclaiming her (black woman) self esteem and purported intelligence."

Yes, Sheila. True true.

This illustrates the feeling of further entitlement that blacks have after college. When you attempt to educate blacks, whether they become truly "educated" is beside the point. How they obtain the degree is irrelevant. They have a new sense of entitlement because they have obtained that "magical piece of paper" that whites carry around like a membership card. This diploma, in their eyes, is a free pass to collect the spoils of the white world. When blacks can not be educated at the college level, they claim that they were "kept out" or "underserved". This shows a sense entitlement.

Desiree is a mess, but she brilliantly shows us the black thinking style.

Luisa said...

SBPDL am I an anomaly concerning individuals with African heritage? My father is pure African and my mother is of Russian-Jewish descent. I get 1600-1900 out of 2400 usually on the SAT's. I will probably marry a Russian-Jewish man and have 2-4 children by him while also acquiring 1-2 children from a sperm bank where they will have a father that possesses the same descent as my father. Basically half of my children will have 75% Russian-Jewish descent and the other half will have 75% African heritage. Should I expect a large gap between IQ and educational gap them?

Anonymous said...

SBPDL am I an anomaly concerning individuals with African heritage? My father is pure African and my mother is of Russian-Jewish descent. I get 1600-1900 out of 2400 usually on the SAT's. I will probably marry a Russian-Jewish man and have 2-4 children by him while also acquiring 1-2 children from a sperm bank where they will have a father that possesses the same descent as my father. Basically half of my children will have 75% Russian-Jewish descent and the other half will have 75% African heritage. Should I expect a large gap between IQ and educational gap them?

Luisa said...

Sorry for duplicating my comment twice and sorry for my spelling mistake. I meant "Should I expect a large IQ and educational gap between them?"

What will be the main differences in my children, between those of 75% Russian-Jewish blood and those of 75% African heritage?

Anonymous said...

Luisa said: What will be the main differences in my children, between those of 75% Russian-Jewish blood and those of 75% African heritage?

SG Says: I don't know, but try to cut back on those prescription drugs.

Dissident said...

Why are you using a sperm bank? Why don't you just have an African man impregnate you?

Why are you asking these silly questions, how is anyone to know what kind of an IQ your offspring will posses?

Hirsch said...

Alright, I'll admit it. I'm more than a little jealous of black people. They supposedly have a mean IQ of about 85. There is a boy with Downes' Syndrome who bags groceries at my local store and he always seems so sunny and optimistic. Just think of it. If you were black, your chances of having an existential crisis or mental breakdown would be much less.

The moment you were about to be struck by an unpleasant thought, it would be brushed aside by your admiration for a rap beat filtering out of a car, or the spinning rims on an SUV.

Anonymous said...

"What will be the main differences in my children, between those of 75% Russian-Jewish blood and those of 75% African heritage?"

Why not read through the past entries for this information? It sounds liek you need a basic level of understanding to begin with. There are several published documents regarding race and IQ. No one can really predict the outcome of any multi-racial union, depends on the IQ of the parents and environment for raising children, etc.

White Guy said...

Luisa,

Do the world a favor and don't reproduce, at all. If you must have children, adopt them, but do not adopt white babies ... they need white mothers and fathers.

The fact that you have African DNA precludes you from understanding the deeper meaning of this.

Adopt black or brown babies and have a good life.

Anonymous said...

"I get 1600-1900 out of 2400 usually on the SAT's"

Usually???

How F'ing often do you take the SAT???

Desiree said...

@ Sheila:

Sort of reminds me of the black woman who frequents this site, with her attempts to write standard English (it's "fare" not "fair," you poor dear). It's rather ironic that she's demonstrating her ignorance and deficiencies while proclaiming her self esteem and purported intelligence.

Sheila, you tool. If typographical errors chafe your ass and make you question people's intelligence levels, I am sure you think SBPDL has the IQ of a gnat. His typos are practically legend!

Is that all you've got? Doesn't seem like much, Sheila, not much at all...


@ White Guy:

If you must have children, adopt them, but do not adopt white babies ... they need white mothers and fathers.

The fact that you have African DNA precludes you from understanding the deeper meaning of this.


This is hilarious, White Guy. I am sure you'd be the first one to naysay a black person objecting to whites adopting black kids. I sometimes fear that whites don't know the 'deeper meaning' (how nebulous, White Guy) of what it is like to be a person of color, which will end up screwing the kid's mind.

I don't know how many forums I've came across where white women are asking about what the hell to do with their black or mulatto daughter's hair. Little things like not taking the time to learn about black hair care can lead to psychological damage, White Guy. Kids don't want to go around looking bad.

And I've read anecdotes in forums from Asians with white parents and these Asians are trying to understand their own self-hate.

A person of color adopting a white kid would do no harm. I planned to adopt white kids myself, as a sociological experiment.

That should be great fun, right, Whitey? (I am dead serious about this, by the way. I've always wanted a white older brother, so a son will most certainly do, and thanks to this great nation, I'll be able to buy one!! Oh, happy day!)


@ Hirsch:

You know, I was going to get on my soapbox about your comment, tool, and explain that the mere presence of a mean of 85--which is so close to retardation--should cause one to question the validity of the researchers' results (no doubt, this stat is from the Pioneer Fund yahoos Lynn, Jensen, Rushton, etc.).

It's inexplicable, that number!

However you said:
Alright, I'll admit it. I'm more than a little jealous of black people.

And now, all is right with the world, Hirschie. If only SBPDL would be as honest as you, Black Guy and myself could take his cracker ass under our wings and let him cry out his self-hate. I mean, it just makes perfect sense; this amount of obsession can only be perfectly explained by self-loathing and jealousy.

Hirsch, sweetie, thank you. You explained perfectly that the flipside of why SBPDL's blog is so popular with hateful racist yahoos is due to a deep, deep envy. I remember reading that Mark Twain said the African's black skin was beautiful perfection in comparison to the white skin of the European that was rendered pale and sickly...

Anonymous said...

What goes around comes around. America was bulit on the backs of slaves and the corpses of Native Americans.

Anonymous said...

"What goes around comes around. America was bulit on the backs of slaves and the corpses of Native Americans."

Prove it! You are spewing some other liberal progressive's comments. You should learn to think for yourself. We know, those pesky hate facts keep getting in the way.

Here's the deal: Blacks have never been a large part of the American population percentage-wise. They have always been financially the poorest, and lived mostly in the south where they cropped fields and worked as field labor. They have built ZERO wealth over several generations. Show me where blacks have built the major components of society that have made us a world super power, especially the large cities in the north. I would LOVE to see those numbers. We all would.

Blacks have had no part in building large cities, universities, science, the the invention innovative products and processes, starting businesses, or anything else that has built wealth in America. Picking crops and agricultural labor has not built wealth in America. Give me a break.

Over time, blacks have actually cost society MORE than they contribute due to their higher use of welfare, affirmative action programs, plus the cost of higher crime and illegitimacy rates. Get busy with your list, (I will not hold my breath...).

Anonymous said...

"I am sure you'd be the first one to naysay a black person objecting to whites adopting black kids. I sometimes fear that whites don't know the 'deeper meaning' (how nebulous, White Guy) of what it is like to be a person of color, which will end up screwing the kid's mind. "

OOOh, the "deeper meaning"! Wow, sounds like more black mythology.

Everyone knows that black people will not adopt ANY children. There are so many orphaned crack-addicted, preemie, disabled black babies out there on the market, no blacks will ever adopt them. You should ask your social worker mother about this one. Whites go out of their way to adopt these poor souls. I know at least 3 white couples who have and are doing a stellar job trying to make things better for their adopted little "people of color". Bless their little hearts.

Blacks are selfish, are morally loose, and are chronically unmarried, so I don't expect this to change anytime soon. If black women would stop popping out so many unwanted and unplanned babies, we would not have such a glut.

Only white people have the compassion and means to bring a baby of any race into their loving homes. Blacks do not care about babies and children, or they would not abort, neglect and abuse their own offspring as they do. Know how many more black children are homeless and neglected in America? Just look at the welfare numbers. The most dangerous place for a black baby is with a black mother. Period.

More of the black thinking style, storytelling and mythology.

Anonymous said...

"You explained perfectly that the flipside of why SBPDL's blog is so popular with hateful racist yahoos is due to a deep, deep envy."


Soooo, what is your excuse for being here?
This blog is so popular with YOU Desiree. Your posts are longest, most detailed, and most frequent of all.

Oops!

Anonymous said...

"What goes around comes around. America was bulit on the backs of slaves and the corpses of Native Americans."

^LoL

No, it wasn't. It was built by a bunch of inexplicably reviled "old dead white men" who fill our history books (but are increasingly being blackwashed out). These hated white men were playing the same game that every other race and culture was playing. They were just the best at it and "won." Had the Chinese become the dominant people of the Earth by the same processes, you wouldn't be hearing about "Chinese guilt" the way you hear about whites feeling guilty. Today, the non-whites are crying sour grapes and would have us believe that their societies were utopian once upon a time even though we have just as much if not more historical evidence of their aggression (in so far as they were technologically able to be aggressive) than any aggression Europeans could be accused of.

Notice that America didn't get "built" in all those years "Native Americans" resided on the continent before whites showed up. There was no large-scale order. All that existed were communities of perpetually warring savages. They "built" America? Please. Get real.

They wrote nothing like what a John Locke or Thomas Paine or Thomas Jefferson or a James Madison would write. Such concepts that filled these white men's minds would later be distorted and taken advantage of by tawdry non-whites looking for handouts. Individual private property and liberty, for example, were (and arguably still are) totally foreign concepts to ALMOST ALL lower class non-whites.

Notice that blacks NO WHERE seem to be capable of duplicating a Western society even when two of them (Rhodesia/South Africa) are handed over to them on a silver platter.

Sure, some Chinamen worked on the railroad. Sure, some blacks and Indians picked cotton. That doesn't mean they "built" the country, you dolt. Building something takes intelligence, vision, and persistence....something whites, when they are at the top of their game and not being held back by programs that discriminate against them, have more of than probably any other group. Just because non-white labor was exploited (and even then only made up a fraction of all of the cheap labor), doesn't mean they built it. I would think when it comes to erecting the Sears Tower, the engineers and the architects should get more credit than the masses of people (many who were probably morons) who had to make a living hammering in nails to a two by four.

I used to do the low end work at my local supermarket when I was fifteen. So did other young, high school-aged boys. Does that mean we "built" the grocery chain? LOL According to your logic, there's a lot of things I "built" as a punk teenager that I'm not getting credit for. I don't even have to claim that my daddy's daddy's daddy's daddy's daddy's daddy did the "building." lol

"Whas muh repoRATEshuns?"

The country was 90% white up until around the 1970s. 10% of the nonwhite population was not supporting 90% of the white population. That 10% non-white population couldn't even support itself. It needed and STILL NEEDS an increasing amount of white tax dollars to subsist.

Anonymous said...

"I planned to adopt white kids myself, as a sociological experiment."

You are a sick, sick, sick bitch.

Anonymous said...

"That should be great fun, right, Whitey?"

Not for you, darkie. Your adopted white children will grow up to hate you.

Desiree said...

Soooo, what is your excuse for being here?
This blog is so popular with YOU Desiree. Your posts are longest, most detailed, and most frequent of all.

Oops!


Wow! Just wow!

You are ignoring the point: a white guy writing about black people as obsessionally as SBPDL is doing is obviously driven by some very strong intrinsic drive. And there are very few strong intrinsic drives: love, hate (fine line between those two), envy, it could be sexual...

My purpose for leaving comments? I'll tell it to you straight: I enjoy leaving them and I like making fun of the monkey that runs this site.



You are a sick, sick, sick bitch.

Am I really? My sociological experiment was that I wanted to see if you can erase all notions of white privilege from a white child growing in the United States.

I think it can be done; I plan to have white children. Nothing sick about this. I will say, though, I would encourage them to marry blacks as I would with my own bio children.

Anonymous said...

Desiree never learns. She reads without understanding. She emotes without logic. She thinks without facts and mental discipline. Instead of rational discourse, she substitutes anecdotes, tropes, speculation, snark, a few obscenities tossed in for good measure, then tops it all off with overweening arrogance.

It's often said that ignorance is bliss, but in Desiree's case, stupidity is nirvana. Or perhaps it's that she keeps doing the same thing over and over again and expects different results, also known as insanity. Desiree, you and all the other blacks should be thankful that you live on the progressive plantation, since you'll never have to assume personal responsibility for anything throughout your tawdry, shameful, useless little existence.

White Guy said...

"I planned to adopt white kids myself, as a sociological experiment."

Desiree couldn't hide that Negro soul of her's if she tried - only a savage would do such a thing.

I was wrong when I implied savagery existed within you in thought alone.

You are the African, the African is you.

Anonymous said...

"I plan to have white children."

Desiree, you are taking your obsession with Michael Jackson too far. We know you're a self-hating negro, and with this revelation that you plan to destroy the lives of innocent children by raising them yourself...I wouldn't be surprised to learn that you are a pedophile.