Changes to the HOPE Scholarship

 I wrote this article on the proposed changes to the HOPE scholarship here in GA.

Governor's Proposals Would Dim HOPE Scholarships

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal's proposed changes to the HOPE scholarship would significantly alter the pledge that Georgia made to students back in 1992. 

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 Basically, the HOPE scholarship is taking a 10% cut plus fees will no longer be paid.  This may cost the average student $1500 a year. If students are superior with a 3.5 GPA and 1200 SAT, they get the full ride, minus fees.

But what about homeschoolers?

As of right now, homeschoolers need a 85th percentile score to get HOPE as a Freshman.  They can get it retroactively if they maintain a B average. 

So, why do homeschoolers need a higher SAT/ACT score than the Top public school students who will get a full ride.  And, if they do get that higher score, do they get the full HOPE or HOPE lite.  And if there are two tiers now, do they set a higher tier for homeschoolers to get a full ride, or do they set a lower threshold for them to get the 90% grant?

Has anyone heard?  I'm very curious.

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Tapping Into Their Genius

From the time  I began homeschooling, I always worked from the premise that my kids were gifted... that they had genius potential.

Hearing a mom say that surely has many rolling their eyes, but I have always felt that every child was gifted at .. something.  It is up to the parent and educators to help them find what that area of giftedness is and to bring it out.

Over the years I have become frustrated with people who told me that my child wasn't ready for this or that based on their age or based on what other kids were doing.  It seemed strange to me that I was homeschooling and that people still expected me to follow the crowd.  It has been hard fighting a tide of when a child is supposed to do what and when, but as the parent and educator is has been my goal to and my responsibility to advocate for my children and to get them the resources they needed.

I wish I had met these people (The Staffords) a few years ago and known that they had a program to help parents accelerate their kids.  (I was aware of them, but not the program Mrs. Stafford is running.)

My kids are almost done homeschooling, but I will glean what I can.  Meanwhile, I feel this is important information for all of you homeschoolers with younger kids.





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We need a one-room schoolhouse mentality

 In speaking to a homeschooling mom whose 18 year old homeschooler could really use one more year to be ready for college, but because of his age and the fact that he has done 4+ years at highschool level, he is determined to graduate and head to college, it dawned on my that we need a one-room school house mentality.

If you ever read Little House on the Prairie, you might remember that grade levels were not so cut and dry.  The child finished school when they had completed the required work.  It was not unusual to graduate young.  It was not unusual to graduate at an older age.

You'd think that as homeschoolers, we'd have a little more flexibility where grade levels were concerned, but ...not so much if the goal is college.  It is not possible to put a six year span on a transcript and call it high school.  The goal college would call that a less-than-rigorous program and put them out of the running for competitive colleges.

To counter this problem, we can do this for younger grades up to grade 8.  We can set a bar of where we want the child to be before they start high school level.  For instance, they may need to be through Algebra in math, and their reading and writing would have to be at a certain level, as well as geography and basic science knowledge.  Once they have reached those guidelines, the child is ready for a high school curriculum, which you can do in the traditional 4 years.  If they are above average advanced, they can dual enroll in their senior year or use CLEP exams to accelerate their education.


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Am I homeschooling or am I working

My daughter wants to learn to sew correctly.  She technically knows how to sew and use the sewing machine but she skips steps and makes mistakes.  As usual, I surfed the internet for instructional videos for her to watch, but it dawned on me that she can't be the only homeschooler looking to learn these things... so I put it all in a Squidoo page (a site where you earn commission from people viewing and buying things from your page.

I can't tell you how many tutorials I have done for her, then turned around and did my website work separately.  Why did it take me so long to figure out that I could homeschool at work at the same time. 

Well, I guess I have a whole lot of material to get uploaded to websites... and from now on, as I create a program for her, I will be sharing it.



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HOPE Scholarhip, Budget Cuts, and Homeschoolers

With serious budget cuts on the horizon, there are a lot of grumblings about how the HOPE Scholarship should be cut.

It seems that most Georgians want to return the scholarship to it's original intent and draw a top income line cutting off upper income families... (they seem to forget there was also a lower income cut off too as you could not get PELL and HOPE at one time.)  As a homeschooler,  whose children have different and more stringent set of rules of earning the HOPE scholarship, my family would just miss that upper cut off amount and my kids would not get the scholarship if this happens.  But I am not fretting over it because I am not counting on it anyway, because homeschoolers have to be beyond exceptional to get the scholarship first year anyway.  Beyond that first year, my kids could get HOPE if they don't place the income restrictions, unless they use the sliding scale (also suggested), in which case my kids would probably get 80%.  But regardless, come hell or high water, as my mother used to say, if my kids want to stay in college, they will figure it out... I did. ... Although I might help them more than my parents helped me.

Anywhooo...  my point is this.  If homeschoolers need to score in the 85th percentile (SAT approx 1800, ACT 26)  to qualify for the HOPE scholarship first year, why are public school kids getting the scholarships with "B" averages only? And then, if they get the "B" average, why do they need remedial math and writing classes.  HMMMM...  Homeschoolers have to jump through these extra hoops because there is a fear that homeschooling moms will inflate grades.  Meanwhile there is no doubt that schools are inflating grades.

Fair is Fair.

In all fairness, I propose that anyone who can get into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT (SAT approx 1680,  ACT 24)  should be eligible for the HOPE scholarship.  Period. This is less than what is expected of homeschoolers... it is what should be expected of ALL students including homeschoolers.

Ok, but there are arguments that the SAT and maybe even the ACT is culturally biased.  So let's make an exception.  If the student does not fall into the 75th percentile on the ACT or SAT, but is in the top 25 percentile in his class based on GPA then he should also be eligible for the HOPE scholarship.  This exemption would leave homeschoolers out, but we are already used to waiting a year to qualify for the HOPE scholarship, and our kids still seem to manage to pay for that first year of college.

So either 75% or higher on the SAT or ACT OR top 25% in class rank and a student could get the HOPE scholarship.  These simple guidelines would eliminate any extra administration on figuring out who gets the Scholarship, and would still cut out the possibility of student who are not ready for college getting the scholarship based on inflated grades.  But to be fair to those students, if they can get a 3.0 average in their Freshman year, they should also be eligible for the grant.

Just saying...





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Boo Math! NO... Yay Math (sample video)

 If you are like me, ever since your kids finished Algebra, you have been at a loss of how to help them.  You have hired tutors, purchased video based curriculum, and prayed.  Well, that's what I have done anyway. 

My youngest is currently doing Algebra 2 and every now and then she presents me with a problem I don't understand... I don't want to understand it either.  It put us both in very boo-math moods.

But in my quest to find new ways to explain old problems to her, I turned to YouTube and therefore discovered Yay Math.  Ahhh...  It's awesome.

Math videos are recorded in an actual classroom by a full time math teacher.  There is interaction between the teacher and student and important questions are asked and answered. They videos do get kind of silly, but I like that...  If you need dryer material, there's Khan Academy which I also like... but Yay Math is my new favorite for free math help online.

Here's a sample of a Yay math video:




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