Georgia finally has some incredible news for its education system. Georgia Lottery Corp. officials, in an announcement made yesterday, stated that there was a large raise in income for the first half of fiscal year 2012. In fact, the Georgia Lottery’s first-half transfer of funds to the Lottery for Education Account brings the total amount to over $13 billion since the lottery first started in 1993. All this for Georgia educational programs!

So far, for the first half of the fiscal year 2012, which is taken from July 1, 2011, to December 31, 2011, the Georgia Lottery earnings for education programs have reached $418,534,000. This amount totals to more than $7.4 million in front of the first half of fiscal year 2011. Lottery checker

“Although we continue to face tremendous challenges, including the current economic climate and soaring gas prices, our team is completely dedicated to our mission of maximizing revenues for education in Georgia,” said Margaret DeFrancisco, the president and CEO of the Georgia Lottery. “We continue to introduce new games as an entertainment option for our players, and we are exploring ways to keep our existing mix of games fresh and exciting for players.”

Nowadays, all of the profits from the Georgia Lottery go to pay for specific educational programs in the state, such as Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship Program and Georgia’s Pre-K Program. Because of this program, more that 1.3 million of the state’s students have received a scholarship from the HOPE program because of these funds, and more than 1.1 million youngsters actually attend the voluntary prekindergarten program. Lottery winning numbers

However, like DeFrancisco mentioned, the state still faces many challenges, one of them is the rising higher education enrollment and tuition costs. Right now, the HOPE program gives top-notch students with a 3.0 GPA or higher, a full tuition scholarship but, with the costs of education on a constant rise, the program is basically running out of ways to keep up with the demand for the scholarships.

Because of this, the Georgia Student Finance Commission, which manages HOPE, now predicts that there could be as much as a 38 percent reduction in a student’s scholarship in less than four years. Also, by mid-2015, HOPE would only be able to cover less than half a student’s tuition and fees at the University of Georgia and other top-tier schools by the time they enter college.

Last year Gov. Nathan Deal tried to stop HOPE’s deficit by creating legislation to cut scholarship payments for all recipients except for the most academically elite students to 90 percent of tuition. The HOPE award does not rise with tuition costs, so the amount of the scholarship will continue to be the same amount as when the student first enrolled into college.

Georgia’s House and Senate higher education committees have scheduled a joint meeting for next week to discuss the future of the HOPE program and to brainstorm some solutions to fix the problem. As even if the Georgia Lottery Corp. keeps helping, something must be done to keep education programs and scholarships available to children and young people who need these tools to access a better education.