Scholarships for grades regardless of family income widens inequality: the model of Georgia, in the US | Secondary Education, Baccalaureate and FP

The governor of Georgia, a state of the United States, decided in 1992 to launch a system – HOPE (Help outstanding students in education, according to its acronym in Spanish) – through which tuition is paid at a public university to any student with at least a high school record, regardless of family wealth. The model, still in force, is financed with the winnings of the lottery, which is played mainly by the humblest, most of whom are black. On paper it was a good idea, absenteeism went down and university students went up. But if you go into detail, you discover a reality that is perpetuated: this recognition only of academic excellence has widened the inequity between rich or middle-income families – mostly white – and humble ones. Because, compared to the neighboring States, the percentage of students without resources barely grew in the classroom, while the percentage that finished high school rose by an average of 12.3% and another eight points in access to a degree, but the rise was concentrated on the wealthy white student body.

The new policy of scholarships in Madrid to study in a private school for infant education, Baccalaureate or post-compulsory FP studies is in this line in terms of recipients: it will allow families who earn more than 100,000 euros a year (cap of 143,652 euros in a household with two children) also ignoring the disadvantage of the humble. However, the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso ensures that these will have priority in awarding scholarships and will receive more: 3,750 euros when the per capita income does not exceed 10,000 and 2,000 euros when it rises to 37,913 euros.

In Spain, scholarships have never been given to people with many resources without requiring anything in return. Minister José Ignacio Wert a decade ago complicated the calculation of the income thresholds to have the help and demanded a better file to “promote the culture of effort”, but he never considered ignoring the family economy. At the time of Esperanza Aguirre, the Community of Madrid created scholarships for university excellence for the best students regardless of their assets, but maintains a game to rescue students without means who do not have state aid for various reasons

“In Georgia what is known in sociology as the ‘Matthew effect’ occurs. When the criterion for the allocation of resources is excellence, it ends up benefiting those with higher incomes, because they have had the resources to solve the problems”, explains Gabriela Jorquera, advisor to the High Commissioner for the Fight against Poverty. Childish. “Children from poor homes when they encounter a problem, what do I know, with the equations, they are not going to have the opportunity to go to an academy, have a tutor or have the uncle who is a chemist spend two afternoons. That is why it is more difficult for them to finish the educational stage with excellent grades”, she continues.

“What is happening in Georgia is not directly transferable to what is happening in Madrid, whose criterion is income, but the poor are also going to pay what the rich are going to pay,” says Jorquera. “Is it reasonable to support with public resources people who would make the same decisions and have the same opportunities without that help? When there is a context of many resources it is not a dilemma, but it is not the case [en Madrid]”. Also remember the huge differences in income, although the average for the region is the highest in Spain: 15% of families in Madrid are at risk of poverty, according to INE.

Georgia Gov. Zell Miller boasted three decades ago of creating “the most inclusive scholarship program in all 50 states,” because it didn’t just concern minorities and poor whites. And Ayuso follows that path, although without reaching, as in Georgia, the greatest of the millionaires. “What the Community of Madrid wants is for the average income to have some kind of help because they are the ones who always pay and never receive anything, taking into account that inflation is destroying everyone’s economy,” Ayuso argued last Saturday. The Popular Party endorsed her on Monday.

Consequence of state scholarships in Georgia? The rich whites have come out on top and in the early years, there was even ―and this is how a study from the University of Georgia picks it up― known as HOPE Mobile, a phenomenon that was characterized in 1994 and 1995 because in 25% of wealthier counties boosted car sales because parents used some of the money they had saved for college tuition to buy their brilliant scholarship son a car.

Georgia went from being the state that financed higher education the least in 1992 to being the one that financed the most, and its idea was copied in a dozen states such as Florida or South Carolina. Twenty-two years later, the inequality gap continues and the newspaper Washington Post He dedicated an extensive article to him last May. Currently, in five states—South Dakota, South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Georgia—non-earnings-related scholarships exceed 90%, but only 100% in Georgia. By contrast, in California, only 0.1% of scholarships are tied solely to excellence.

The number of scholarships in private centers is going to double in Madrid ―from 64.70 million this year, which has ended to 127.15 million next year― and equity experts warn of the harmful consequences that it is going to have for the poorest households. needy like in Georgia. “Giving help to people who don’t need it will widen the distance between social groups. This funding could be given to schools that are in unfavorable environments, for example, to provide them with support teachers and materials that will improve the education of these students”, explains Cyntia Martínez-Garrido, professor of Research and Evaluation Methodologies at the Education at the Autonomous University of Madrid and one of the authors of a famous report that places Madrid at the head of school segregation in Europe, only surpassed by Hungary.

Alvaro Ferrer, a specialist in equity at the NGO Save the Children, provides new data: “Poor students repeat five times more in Madrid than those with more resources, when at the state level the proportion is four. And it is the second autonomous community, behind Asturias, where the socioeconomic and cultural level of the family most influences educational performance, above the OECD average”.

“Everyone’s money is going to finance the growth of private schools that are going to receive students because the State is financing them,” explains Martínez-Garrido. “With its student selection characteristics, with its extracurricular activities that require an extra investment…”, he enumerates. Jorquera also adds to the list the few dining room scholarships that are granted in Madrid (9% of children, according to a report by Save the Children): “These can play a fundamental role from the nutritional point of view, promoting the acquisition of healthy eating habits and have an effect on educational performance.

“The effective thing is to invest in people who have barriers and also do it in the stages in which they have the most difficulties. In education, the sooner you invest, the better: in nursery school or compulsory education”, emphasizes Ferrer. Although he specifies: “If the money is put into FP or Baccalaureate, let it be to cover the opportunity cost: to replace the income that the child would have if he were working instead of studying. But with these scholarships, that cost is not covered”.

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