The Tennessee House and Senate are working on creating a new education bill that would lower GPA requirements in order for more college to retain their HOPE scholarship. Right now, TN residents in college must achieve at least a 2.75 their freshman year and a 3.0 after that in order to keep the money. The House wants to lower the requirement to 2.75 for all four years while the Senate wants the 2.75 stipulation to be in place only for the freshman and sophomore years. The Tennessean recently conducted interviews with recent grads regarding the changes, and the students they interviewed were not happy about the changes. Being a part of the first graduating class that received the HOPE scholarship, I have to agree. It doesn't make sense for the Tennessee government to reward students for underperformance (or maybe it does considering how our state government likes to operate). Why not provide an incentive for students to work hard? A person can achieve a 2.75 simply by showing up.
Maybe the legislature should consider creating a tiered system. Instead of everyone receiving the same amount, let's give more money to students with a GPA ranging from 3.5 to 4.0 then a lesser amount to those between 3.0 and 3.5. That might really encourage students to work hard for better grades. If a 2.75 student and 4.0 student receives the same amount of money, there really isn't an incentive to reach that higher level of education. It is just plain unfair for those 4.0s that are rewarded equally as the 3.0s or the 2.75s.
Is the state trying to reward and encourage college students or are they trying to create state-sponsored diploma mills?
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