$34 million in HOPE funds going for other education purposes
News is coming out about Gov. Sonny Perdue using $34 million in HOPE scholarship and pre-k funds for items other than the ideal purpose of that money in his FY 2011 budget proposal:
According to pages 348 to 350 of Perdue’s budget, it appears the governor is proposing to use lottery monies for such things as:
-The HERO scholarships -$800,000.
-Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Program–$966,757
-North Ga. Military Scholarship Grants—$1,502,800 and
-North Georgia ROTC Grants–$652,479.
The question on the e-mail chain: Is it legal? Yes, the lottery is designed to fund education and scholarships, but its main beneficiaries are supposed to be pre-k and HOPE. While these other scholarships are clearly educational, they had been funded from non-lottery education dollars in the past.
No doubt there will be grumbling, but political realities are that voters won’t accept a tax increase and in an election year legislators aren’t willing to go that route.
2 Responses to “$34 million in HOPE funds going for other education purposes”
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January 25th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I disagree, I think it is not legal:
OCGA 50-27-13 states: “No surplus in the Lottery for Education Account shall be reduced to correct any nonlottery deficiencies in sums available for general appropriations, and no surplus in the Lottery for Education Account shall be included in any surplus calculated for setting aside any nonlottery reserve or midyear adjustment reserve.”
These other things, I believe, would be “non-lottery deficiencies.” So, I think these are not legal.
January 26th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
That’s the AJC reporter’s opinion.