Gifted Atlanta

The following message was posted today in a listserv run by the National Association for Gifted Children. I’ve copied and pasted it here verbatim. The three research leads included their email addresses in their post. I’ve redacted those to prevent their being spammed. If you want to reach out directly to them with questions, use the Contact page here on GiftedAtlanta.com to send me a message and I’ll email you their contact information.

We are currently researching and writing a book about gifted individuals who are adopted or in foster care. We believe you or someone you know may be interested in sharing your story for our upcoming book.

The book is scheduled for release in 2024 through the publisher Gifted Unlimited.  We will focus on the overlapping social and emotional issues experienced by individuals who have first-hand knowledge of the challenges of adoption or foster care and of giftedness. The audience for the book is parents, education personnel, teachers, coaches, administrators, and psychologists. In addition to the educational and practical application aspects, the book will be filled with many insights from those who have lived it and we would love to include your perspective.

To our knowledge, no one else has done research with this unique group of people (gifted + adopted/fostered).  Needless to say, we are very excited to open up new insights to those who live, teach, and work with this population by sharing the experiences, and unique obstacles this group must overcome.

If you are willing to share your perspective, we can use either a series of questions to which you respond in writing, a video interview via Zoom, or an in-person interview. You may choose to remain anonymous through the use of a pseudonym or can choose to share your name if you would prefer. We would appreciate hearing back from you by January 31, 2024.

If you have questions about the study or would be interested in participating, please go to https://tinyurl.com/GAFQuestionnaire.

Sincerely, 
Kathy Green, Adjunct Lecturer in Gifted Education – University of Iowa; Instrumental Music Teacher
Alissa Cress, Clinical Assistant Professor of Educational Studies at Purdue University
Mariel Tader, Ph.D., Cornell University

IRB Protocol #: IRB-2023-395
Study Title: Inner Lives of Gifted Adoptees and Foster Youth

“Gifted Program: Services are not aligned with funding intent.”

That’s the title of a report issued this month by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, and as the title suggests, a significant number of schools aren’t living up to the state’s intent in the way they provide gifted education.

Before I dig into the findings, let me say a few words about why the state conducted this audit, which first requires a brief overview of how Georgia funds its public schools.

The state of Georgia provides funding to its public schools based on the number of students who attend classes. In the funding terminology, one student attending for one full school day equals one “full-time equivalent,” or FTE. Schools receive state funds based on their total FTEs. The more FTEs a school has, the more money they have, which makes sense because larger schools need more teachers, more technology, and so forth.

Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding formula gives additional weight to certain types of students when calculating funding. These are students the state believes need specialized instruction, and among these higher-weighted groups are gifted identified students. The state gives schools extra money for providing gifted services to gifted students — according to the audit, 30 percent to 68 percent more than the baseline. That extra money is paid only for the hours that a gifted student is receiving gifted instruction, which typically means they’re being taught 1) in a smaller group setting; and 2) by a teacher who has earned “gifted endorsement” by completing additional training in teaching gifted students. The more hours of gifted instruction a school provides to its gifted population, the more extra funding it receives.

In short, the state shells out more money to provide specialized services for its gifted kids, and the audit sought to find out whether that money is being used the way the state intended.

The audit’s answer: not quite. The report identified three major shortcomings in how gifted education is being provided in Georgia schools:

1. Class sizes too large. Classes for gifted students are supposed to be smaller, to provide more individual attention to the students. The audit report refers to a class size of 12 students as the basis for funding for gifted instruction. This class size was considered the state’s ideal for gifted services. However, the audit found that gifted classes averaged 19 students in the primary grades, 23 in upper elementary, 26 in middle school and 22 in high school. Class sizes tended to be larger in larger school systems. All told, 77 percent of all gifted classes exceeded the class size of 12 that the state set as its standard.
   
   As an aside, the state board of education has established class size limits for gifted classes. At the elementary school level, a gifted class should have no more than 17 students; at the middle- and high-school levels, the maximum is 21. (See page 22 of the Georgia Resource Manual for Gifted Education Services.) The audit showed that these limits were also regularly exceeded.
   
   Unfortunately, as the report noted, the class-size standards aren’t enforceable, because the state has given its public schools broad flexibility in setting class sizes. As I understand it, this was an unavoidable compromise that was made because for many years the state did not fully fund schools in accordance with the QBE formulas, so the schools couldn’t afford to hire enough teachers to meet the class size requirements. The audit report acknowledges that schools aren’t violating the law by having such large classes, but it questions whether gifted classes are effectively meeting their purpose at those sizes.
   
2. Teaching requirements not met. As I outlined above, schools earn additional QBE funding when gifted-endorsed teachers provide instruction to gifted-identified students. The audit found that, out of all the classes schools claimed were gifted classes, 10 percent were taught by teachers who didn’t have gifted endorsement. (The audit also found that 2 percent of the students who schools claimed had received gifted instruction hadn’t been identified as gifted. That may be the result of clerical failings. In any case, it’s more a matter of concern on the funding side, whereas our focus on this website is on providing the students appropriate instruction.)
   
3. Lack of universal screening. Georgia doesn’t require that all students be screened for possible giftedness. It also doesn’t mandate that classroom teachers be trained to identify traits that may indicate giftedness. As a result, students from certain underrepresented groups may be overlooked. As the report points out, most school systems in Georgia do in fact engage in universal screening, even though the state doesn’t mandate it. The report had several recommendations for how school systems could improve the process of identifying gifted students.

Most of the recommendations in the report were for tighter controls, which would help to ensure that the delivery of gifted education in the schools is living up to what the state intended when it established a higher rate of funding for gifted instruction.

You can read a summary of the audit report here: https://www.audits2.ga.gov/reports/summaries/gifted-program/

The full report (PDF) includes a detailed overview of how gifted education works in Georgia, which is good reading for anyone who wants to advocate for a gifted child or for gifted education in general. You can download it here: https://www.audits.ga.gov/ReportSearch/download/29986

An article about the audit report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is here: https://www.ajc.com/education/audit-georgia-schools-took-money-for-gifted-services-they-didnt-provide/2T6NTODCHBFBHMG7KD7222ZOZU/

Did you know that Georgia sets limits for the headcounts in gifted classes, including high-school AP classes?

I did. So when I found out one of the AP classes at my child’s school has more than 30 students, I decided to step into my advocacy role and dig a bit deeper into the rules. I got information from administrators at the school, district and state levels, and now I’m writing this post to share what I learned with you.

Let’s start with the rule itself. The Georgia Resource Manual for Gifted Education Services, which lays out how gifted students are to be identified and served in public schools in Georgia, states: “The total class size specified by the SBOE [State Board of Education] is 21 at the high school level.”

So why are high school AP classes so often larger than that?

First, public school systems in Georgia can get a “strategic waiver” from the state which allows them to exceed the state’s class size rules by a few students. These waivers allow extra students in all classes, not just gifted classes.

(Does your school system have a strategic waiver? Most do. You can check the Department of Education’s list to find out.) 

Second, the class size standards are treated more as goals than absolute requirements. Schools are expected to do what they can to meet the standards when possible, but if class sizes go above the limits, there are no consequences.

Nevertheless, if your gifted student is in a class that’s been designated as gifted or AP and the class has too many students, it doesn’t hurt to reach out to the assistant principal who oversees scheduling. They may not know that state policy calls for smaller class sizes for gifted sections.

Always be polite and non-confrontational. Educators work hard and have to balance the needs of hundreds of students using limited resources.

Finally, be reasonable and realistic. If your school has two sections of AP Government, and each has 36 students, you can make a good argument that a third section should be added. Or if one section has 30 students and the other has 20, it’s reasonable that the two classes should be balanced to 25 students in each section.

On the other hand, if the school has just one section of AP Physics, and the class has 30 students, it may not be realistic to ask that the school break this class into two sections of 15. School funding formulas can rarely provide the financial support for classes that small.

I hope this is helpful in your advocacy for your student and for other gifted students in your school community.

Two professors at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cincinnati are researching how gifted students are being taught during the pandemic. The researchers hope to develop recommendations for how teachers can best serve gifted students using virtual, blended or hybrid instruction.

Students in grades 3, 4, 5 or 6 in a public school are invited to complete the online survey. Students’ identities will be kept confidential.

Racial inequity has been one of the top concerns in the American gifted education community for years. Here in Georgia, we have it better than some, because Georgia law requires that every public school student identified as gifted must be provided with gifted instruction. In other states, that’s not the case, and in some cities — most prominent among them New York City — there aren’t nearly enough spaces in the highly coveted gifted schools for all the children who need gifted instruction. Yet even in Georgia, questions remain about whether the processes used to identify gifted children are fair to minority children.

Today, I share an opinion piece about why access to gifted education is essential to the pursuit of racial justice. This essay, written by Colin Seale, was originally posted on Seale’s web site, thinkLaw, and is posted in full here with permission from the author.

Black Lives Matter. Black Minds Matter, Too:
The Case for Prioritizing Equity in Gifted Education
as an Urgent Racial Justice Issue

by Colin Seale

It is unacceptable that the question of whether Black lives matter is still a question. It is impossible to silence the screams and cries of the fed up after the unspeakable and unjustifiable killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless other Black lives lost to police officers and wannabe police officers. But these screams and tears have echoed in my heart since I was 16 years old. 

This pain started when I was 16 years old because that is when police officers stopped and frisked me around the corner from my home in Brooklyn, NY. I was one of few Black students attending the prestigious Bronx High School of Science (where there are even fewer today) and I was getting ready to start an exciting summer enrichment program the next day. But none of that mattered when I was up against a brick wall being searched and aggressively questioned about where I was coming from and where I was going. It might not sound like much to be questioned about where you are coming from and where you are going. But I was taught that I was free. Yet, I still had to very respectfully justify my movements to angry men as the only way out of the shamefully deadly crime of walking while Black. This moment permanently stripped me of my full humanity. This idea of America, this promise that lit up my family’s eyes in the depths of their dark struggle to immigrate to the United States was betrayed. This firm belief that their American children will be entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that all will be well if you just do the right thing, was shattered.  

There is something about this notion of an unfulfilled promise that leads me beyond the criminal justice system. As a teacher-by-day, law student-by-night, I was grateful for the incredible volunteer experience of spending time with brilliant young people who were amazing problem solvers, brilliant at thinking on their toes, and born leaders. These mostly Black, Brown, and overwhelmingly poor youth were, without question, the most entrepreneurial, analytical, and persuasive young minds I had ever come across. I could not figure out, however, how these brilliant young minds ended up juvenile detention. My semester as a student attorney for my law school’s juvenile justice clinic showed that we are leaving genius on the table. There are no doubts about the promise these youth showed, but their promise was going unfulfilled. I watched enough commercials for the United Negro College Fund to understand that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Yet, here I stood, seeing brilliant minds needlessly placed in cages. 

This confined brilliance felt familiar. It reminded me of what it felt like to constantly be labeled as having “poor self-control” and to always find myself in some sort of trouble in kindergarten and first grade. These challenges miraculously disappeared when tests for my speech impediment and behavior challenges revealed that I should have been in gifted and talented classes since I was in kindergarten. My part of Brooklyn did not have an elementary school with a gifted program, so I was bussed to a different school as one of twelve students in my grade level with access to this transformational experience. Transformational is not an exaggeration, because the same behaviors that would have eventually landed me in juvenile detention were required in my gifted classroom. Walking around and interacting with my peers was meaningful collaboration, not goofing off. Questioning the teacher was intellectual curiosity, not badgering. Telling the teacher there was a better way to do something was effective advocacy, not willful defiance. I was still, surely, subject to the injustices of a systemically racist school system and society. But my mind was free. 

A free mind gave me the privilege to ask questions. Questions like why did I have to get bussed to a school to have access to rigorous and challenging instruction grounded in critical thinking? And why were there only 12 of us in this program when there were brilliant young minds in every single classroom? Education equity advocates in New York City are outraged at the dismal numbers of Black and Brown students admitted to Bronx Science and the 8 other specialized high schools. But when there are over 400 high schools in New York City, what does it mean, really, when “success” means you make a child like me commute 90 minutes each way from Brooklyn to the Bronx? 

Black lives matter. But if we are to truly live, don’t our brains matter, too? I understand and deeply resonate with the cry of “stop killing us.” But I cannot ever be content with simply having permission to exist. Descartes’ revelation that “I think, therefore I am” speaks to the need that mere survival is not enough. The Notorious B.I.G.’s observation “my mind’s my nine, my pen’s my MAC 10” goes a bit further, speaking to the unquestionable power of a brilliant, expressive mind. The reality is, access to critical thinking matters now more than ever. We need to unlock brilliance any and everywhere it exists. The survival of our world depends on it.  

Unfortunately, the same racial injustices that treat Black lives as unworthy also treat our minds as inferior. My existence in advanced academic programs was inseparable from the broader conversation, then and now, about equity and access in gifted education. The glaring underrepresentation of Black students in gifted education means that at the moment we need critical thinkers more than ever, we are still deciding to treat critical thinking as a luxury good. The critical thinking gap in our education system results in an underclass of students who get taught what to think while the most “elite” students in the most “elite” schools learn how to think. I am sick and tired of seeing Black folks with brilliant minds behind bars. I am even more sick and tired of the more systemic challenge of denying brilliant Black minds access to educational opportunities that keep their minds in cages. 

With the economic crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic estimated to force massive cuts to education budgets nationwide, a compelling case for treating gifted education as an issue of racial justice must be made. The common, but false, belief that gifted learners will be “just fine” already leads school systems to shift resources away from students who subjectively need these resources more. Even before this crisis, Seattle Public Schools eliminated their gifted and talented, and New York City discussed doing the same in the name of equity. This is not equity. 

A racial justice agenda in education must be committed to the full liberation of Black minds. This means that there need to be more, not fewer gifted and talented program opportunities in schools serving high numbers of students who are typically denied access. More, not fewer, advanced academic offerings at all middle and high schools serving large numbers of Black students. Equity means that education systems shift their focus to serving all students to unlocking the excellence of each student. This means that we need to hold several ideas in our heads at the same time.  

First, we must accept that all students have gifts, but not all students are gifted. Second, gifted students and advanced learners exist everywhere and deserve a right to experience an academic challenge every single day. Third, all students can and should benefit from gifted and talented teaching strategies, but gifted learners require services to meet their specific learning needs just like any other exceptional student population. Fourth, gifted education identification practices and service delivery remain deeply problematic across the country and must be improved. Fifth, fighting for equity should never result in an outcome where everyone gets nothing, even if the equity issues are not being resolved rapidly enough. These five considerations must be addressed in concert, so we can stop leaving genius on the table. Racial justice means we stop talking about simply closing achievement gaps and start talking about shattering achievement ceilings.

This is not just about Black students.  It also makes little sense that we have English Language Learners who are thinking in multiple languages, navigating across multiple cultures, and piecing together complex puzzles all day every day. Gifted education representation challenges and the availability of gifted programming for Native American students and students in poverty, everywhere, are additional examples of areas access and equity must be expanded.  

One of the most important moments in our lives is the moment we realize that our unique power, unique qualifications, and the opportunity to take advantage of opportunities put us in a unique position to make a unique difference in our world. It hurts me to the core that so many of our young people will never get to experience this moment based on nothing else but the color of their skin. Black lives matter. But we cannot ever forget that Black minds matter, too.  

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports that last year’s bill to limit the dual enrollment program is active again in the state legislature, as I predicted would happen when the bill was tabled late in the 2019 session.

The front-page story in today’s paper recaps what we know from last year: participation in dual enrollment has exploded in recent years, and as a result, the program has blown its allocated budget. The state has already shifted some dual enrollment costs to the colleges and universities that provide the classes, and is looking for additional ways to rein in spending.

As you may remember from the 2019 legislative session, the bill (HB 444) would cap the number of hours of dual enrollment classes that the state would pay for. According to the AJC, students enrolling at four-year colleges and universities would be limited to 15 credit hours per semester and 30 credit hours overall. Caps would be higher for students enrolling in technical education classes at technical colleges.

(Note: The version of the bill posted online shows limits of 16 credit hours per semester and 32 total, but perhaps the AJC reporter knows of a change that hasn’t been posted online yet. Last year, a substitute version of the bill written in the House did set the caps at 15 and 30 hours.)

Students could take classes beyond these “covered” limits, but would have to pay for them out of pocket.

Earlier versions of the bill from 2019 would have allowed students to charge additional dual enrollment classes against their future HOPE scholarship allocations; however, that option was removed during committee rewrites last year.

My position is mostly the same as it was when I posted about this last year. From a practical standpoint, I understand why limits are needed to control costs.

I also think it’s reasonable to have limits. I don’t agree with the parents who wrote to me last year to argue that the state should pay for unlimited college classes for high-school students and then turn around and pay for four full years of college under HOPE as well.

A limit of 30 credit hours works out to 10 college courses taken during high school. That ought to be plenty for students at high schools that offer AP classes in most core subjects.

However, for students in high schools that don’t offer many AP classes, 10 dual enrollment classes might not be enough. These students may have an unmet need for more rigorous classes to adequately challenge them, and if they want to get into selective colleges, they also need to keep up with their peers at bigger and better-performing high schools, who routinely take 15 or more AP classes.

That argument may not get much traction in lobbying legislators, though, because this bill also defines the purpose of the dual enrollment program, and it has nothing to do with providing advanced learning options for gifted students.

The purpose of the dual enrollment program shall be to provide qualified high school students with access to rigorous career and academic courses at higher education institutions in order to increase high school graduation rates, prepare a skilled workforce, and to decrease postsecondary students’ time to degree completion.

Georgia HB 444, Lines 19-22 (emphasis added)

State legislators could argue that providing advanced learning options for gifted students isn’t a state responsibility to be handled through dual enrollment, but rather is the responsibility of local public school systems, as mandated by state law. But, as advocates for the gifted, we need to know that school systems can fulfill the requirements of that law by providing gifted high-school students just one gifted or AP class per semester. That’s not enough for students who need the challenge of college-level coursework.

In my opinion, the 30-hour cap should be put in place for students in high schools with robust AP programs. However, I’d like for students in high schools with limited AP options to be able to apply for exemptions from the credit hours caps, or have the option of tapping into their HOPE funds to pay for classes beyond the caps — at least for classes that are in core academic areas (math, science, English / language arts, and social studies).

Step one, though, would be to convince legislators to amend the bill’s language on the purpose of dual enrollment to include serving Georgia’s gifted and advanced learners.

If you want to take action on this bill

The bill is in the Senate Higher Education Committee. That committee is chaired by Lindsey Tippens, who also is listed as the bill’s sponsor in the Senate. The other members of the committee are:

• Brian Strickland
• Chuck Payne
• Lester Jackson
• Brandon Beach
• Sally Harrell
• Chuck Hufstetler
• P.K. Martin IV
• Nan Orrock
• Michael Rhett

If one of these legislators represents your senate district, start by e-mailing them.

It’s also not too soon to get in touch with members of the Georgia House of Representatives. On that side, the bill would go through the Education Committee. The committee has 24 members, who are listed on the committee’s web page.

If you’re a regular reader of news about gifted education, you know there’s widespread concern about the under-representation of minority and economically disadvantaged students in gifted education programs.

One of the most dramatic and talked about developments in gifted education in 2019 was the finding by a panel in New York City that the gifted programs in the city’s public schools were racially and socioeconomically unequal, and the resulting recommendation by that same panel that gifted programs should be eliminated from all public city schools.

In an article in The Atlantic magazine, Andy Smarick — author of Closing America’s High-Achievement Gap — acknowledges the role of public schools in leveling the playing field for all students, yet warns against shortchanging our brightest kids, as often happens in public schools.

He looks at the lack of structure and funding for gifted education in many states. And, like other advocates for gifted education, he points out that if public schools don’t provide gifted education, those who will suffer most will be the economically disadvantaged, who don’t have as many options for enrichment outside of school.

I recommend taking a few minutes to read the full article. Those of us who advocate for gifted children regularly encounter administrators, teachers, and neighbors who undervalue gifted education and even resent resources being allocated to it. Smarick’s article reminds us that gifted kids, like all kids, deserve the chance to be their best.

Article: The Contradiction at the Heart of Public Education

HB 444, which would have created new guidelines and limitations for Georgia’s Dual Enrollment program — see my prior post for details — was tabled in the Georgia Senate and was not passed into law.

The Senate Higher Education Committee had written a substitute version of the bill, which made some noteworthy adjustments to the version that had been passed by the House. Among them:

• Ninth and tenth graders could take Dual Enrollment classes at four-year colleges and universities, but only online — not in person on the college campuses. (In the House version, freshmen and sophomores would be ineligible for Dual Enrollment.)
• Dual Enrollment would be capped at 32 semester hours total, with a maximum of 16 semester hours in any one semester. (The House version of the bill would cap the hours at 30.)
• The Senate’s version eliminated all language about tapping into a student’s HOPE Scholarship allotment to pay for Dual Enrollment courses beyond the cap of 32 total semester hours. Instead, those additional classes — referred to in the bill as “noncovered dual credit courses” — would be paid at the student’s own expense.

Based on feedback I received in response to my prior post, I imagine the gifted community would prefer the eligibility of freshmen and sophomores that’s contained in the Senate version of the bill, even though it provides for online Dual Enrollment classes only.

Where I think parents of gifted kids won’t be happy with the Senate version is the removal of the option to use HOPE funds to pay for Dual Enrollment. Last month, I heard from some parents who were vehemently against the idea of having extra Dual Enrollment hours charged against their HOPE allotment. I’m guessing they’ll be even unhappier with having out-of-pocket payment as the only option for students who complete much of their high-school coursework by taking college courses.

Personally, I saw the use of HOPE funds as a reasonable compromise. While I recognize there are some highly gifted, highly mature students who are more suited to take their high-school classes in a college setting, I don’t think the state of Georgia should be on the hook to pay for more than one college degree for any student.

Those who contacted me seemed to hold the position that for their children, the Dual Enrollment classes weren’t really a college degree program, but rather a substitute high-school education with a level of rigor that wasn’t being provided through their public school. I sympathize with these parents, but I think that battle should be taken to the public schools, which need to offer appropriate education for all students. If a student truly is ready for full-time, college-level work on a college campus at 15 or 16, then yes, they should be allowed to “Move on When Ready,” to use the former name of Dual Enrollment. However, in doing so, they are in fact moving on to college, essentially skipping high school, and under that circumstance, I think it’s completely appropriate that they utilize the HOPE Scholarship as they embark on their college education.

As I wrote in my previous post, the state wants to adjust the Dual Enrollment program because its popularity is busting its allocated budget. For that reason, I’d expect the legislature to take this up again in the 2020 session.

If this is an important issue to you, I suggest you don’t wait until January of next year to give your input. Use the legislative off-season to contact legislators with your opinions and suggestions. This would include the bill’s sponsors, all of whom are listed on the bill’s dedicated page, and members of the House Education Committee and Senate Higher Education Committee. If one of these legislators is your elected representative, start there. If not, I suggest you contact one of the bill’s sponsors with your perspective.

Dual enrollment is an important educational option for gifted students, especially those students whose home high schools don’t offer a wide variety of AP or advanced courses, or those who prefer the more serious environment of a college campus.

Students taking part in Georgia’s Dual Enrollment Program take classes at colleges or universities — public or private — at no cost, and earn both high-school credit and college credit for those classes.

HB 444, which passed the Georgia House of Representatives last week and is now in the Georgia Senate’s Higher Education Committee, would make two significant changes to dual enrollment:

1. Dual enrollment at four-year colleges, whether part of the University System of Georgia or private institutions, would be open only to high-school juniors and seniors. This is a change from existing policy, under which freshmen and sophomores also are eligible. (Under the bill, sophomores could still take classes at the state’s technical colleges.)
2. The Dual Enrollment Program would pay for a maximum of 30 semester hours (45 quarter hours) of college-level classes per high-school student. Once this cap of “covered” hours is reached, students could take additional dual enrollment classes by either A) paying out of pocket, or B) charging the additional dual enrollment hours against their future HOPE Grant or HOPE Scholarship.

To explain this second point, let’s say a high-school student has participated in dual enrollment since her junior year. By the time she reaches the spring semester of her senior year, she has taken 30 semester hours of classes at Georgia State University, all of which have been paid for by the Georgia Dual Enrollment Program. Now, she wants to take an additional 12 semester hours of classes at GSU. Under HB 444, she could either pay for those classes herself, or she could have them paid for by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC), in which case the 12 semester hours would be deducted from the maximum credit hours allowed to her under the HOPE program.

The caps on the HOPE Scholarship are a maximum of 127 semester hours or 190 quarter hours. This bill wouldn’t change those caps.

In our example above, the student taking an additional 12 semester hours at GSU could have those classes paid for by GSFC, applying them toward her HOPE allotment. If she goes on to receive a HOPE Scholarship, she would then have 115 semester hours remaining of HOPE Scholarship eligibility.

I contacted a legislative relations staff member with GSFC, who said it’s his interpretation that if a student exceeded the dual enrollment coverage limit, had additional dual enrollment classes paid for through GSFC, and didn’t end up receiving a HOPE Scholarship, they wouldn’t be required to reimburse the money to the state.

As with any legislation, changes to the bill are likely as it works its way through the legislative process.

My opinion? This is a good and necessary bill, crafted in response to an audit of the dual enrollment program that found explosive growth and spending, as well as some abuse of the program. Dual enrollment students taking one or two classes per semester at a college or university won’t bump into the 30-hour cap. Those who do reach the cap can still take additional classes without paying out of pocket by tapping into their future HOPE award.

The purpose of this bill is to keep the Dual Enrollment Program — and the HOPE program — solvent, and that’s crucial to Georgia’s gifted students.