Dems tell GOP to restore HOPE
By Walter C. Jones
Morris News Service
Published Tuesday, August 23, 2011


ATLANTA -- Democratic Party leaders on Monday called for legislators to restore the HOPE Scholarship and repeal a new state immigration law.

About 75 people held a rally on the Capitol steps as lawmakers arrived for the second week of the special session.

Democrats argued that the Republicans controlling the legislature and statewide offices are ignoring the concerns of the middle class while advancing the desires of the rich.

HOPE cuts enacted during this year's regular legislative session make it harder for college students to cope with rising tuition and fees, said Rep. Al Williams, D-Midway.

Students who maintained a B average had expected a free college education, he said. Now, only about 85 percent of their tuition will be covered.

"We changed the rules," Williams said. "How would you like to be in a baseball game where in the third inning all of the rules change, all of a sudden you don't have three strikes; you have two?"

Republicans passed the cuts earlier this year to keep the program from going bankrupt. Rising enrollment and tuition costs and stagnant lottery revenue meant HOPE was paying out more than it was taking in.

Louis Elrod, chairman of the Young Democrats, called on legislators to replace Republicans' cuts with full benefits to those below a certain income.

"We will all remember one thing: Democrats created HOPE, but Republicans destroyed it," he said.

On the immigration law, Williams said its passage earlier this year was a break with the country's tradition of welcoming immigrants.

"Some of our brothers now have red skin, some now have brown skin, but they still have skin," he said. "We now decide who are Americans and who are patriotic in spite of every major race and hue having died in every major battle that made this country great."

The rally had been planned for weeks, and party officials started nearly an hour late to allow stragglers stuck in traffic to arrive.

Organizers planned for the rally to last through the morning legislative session.

In the afternoon, a House committee begins consideration of the district boundaries passed last week by the Senate for its 56 members.

Consideration is essentially a formality since each chamber customarily passes the other chamber's district maps without changes, but Democrats are upset about the Republicans' redistricting and complained about that, too, during the rally.

Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Tuesday, August 23, 2011

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