A House Higher Education Committee approved a bill Tuesday that would change the name of the state’s technical college network to the Georgia Career College System.

House Bill 315, sponsored by Rep. Chad Nimmer, is a priority of Gov. Nathan Deal, who proposed the name change last month as one of his top issues for the year. The new name is a better reflection of what the system does, and will better attract students, Deal said.

Nimmer nor system commissioner Gretchen Corbin could provide lawmakers a rundown of costs to complete the name change, but said expenses, such as stationary and sign printing, would be phased in so no additional funding would be needed.

The bill applies to the overall name of the current Technical College System of Georgia, but not the system’s 23 individual technical colleges. System officials will consider changing the school names to career colleges later.

Rep. John Pezold, R-Fortson, cast the lone no vote on the bill, saying money spent on the name change could better be used on educating students.

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