The bank wants their money regardless of how much you earn. With this scheme, if you don't earn anything you don't pay anything and when you do pay it is always a managable amount. This sort of arrangement could be very handy for a programmer-mendicant or compulsive volunteer.
The HOPE scholarship, if you're referring to the one in Georgia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOPE_Scholarship) is still alive. I went to school, getting full tuition plus a book and fee stipend for my undergraduate degree. Eligibility became more difficult sometime after I graduated, but it's still around.
