All Technical College System of Georgia institutions and 14 University System of Georgia institutions would be affected by Senate Bill 312:
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
Darton State College
College of Coastal Georgia
Georgia State University Perimeter College
Gordon Sate College
Middle Georgia State University
South Georgia State College
Dalton State College
Georgia Highlands College
East Georgia State College
Bainbridge State College
Atlanta Metropolitan State College
Georgia Gwinnett College
University of North Georgia - two-year degrees
The state Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would set a minimum amount for the HOPE scholarship award for recipients at the state’s technical colleges and most access institutions, colleges with broad admissions criteria, in the University System.
Under Senate Bill 312, sponsored by Sen. Charlie Bethel, HOPE recipients would receive a minimum $2,000 scholarship award each semester (or $134 per credit hour), an amount likely to cover tuition at eligible institutions.
Bethel's bill is one of a few HOPE bills passed by one chamber this year. The House passed a bill by Speaker Pro tem Jan Jones, R-Milton, that would boost the grade point averages for students taking tougher science and math courses. HOPE scholars must maintain a 3.0 GPA to keep the award.
Monday is the deadline for passage by at least one chamber of the Legislature to keep bills alive this year.
The lottery-funded HOPE scholarship program has been subject of much discussion, as lawmakers look to fund the popular program that they said has been unable to keep up with rising tuition at state institutions and has left awards covering fewer college costs. State education leaders have said the tuition increases have been necessary partly to replace the funding lost due to state education budget cuts.
Bethel, R-Dalton, said his bill is all about providing access to students who need it most and may not be able to afford the state’s more expensive flagship institutions. He said it could increase enrollment at some schools that have seen declines in recent years.
The HOPE minimum would apply to eligible students at all of Georgia’s technical colleges and 14 of the 29 schools in the state’s public university system. Georgia’s larger, more popular research institutions including Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, as well as regional universities like Kennesaw State University, would not be included under the bill. Last year, about 21,500 students at the qualifying schools received 38,475 HOPE awards, according to state data.
Providing the $2,000 minimum HOPE award is estimated to add an additional $8.3 million to $10 million to the cost of HOPE scholarships in fiscal 2017, according to state estimates.
On the same day Bethel's bill advanced, a HOPE bill by state Rep. Stacey Evans, that would have fully funded tuition for HOPE grant recipients at the state's technical colleges, did not.
Evans’ plan is estimated to cost about $21 million annually, which Evans proposed funding through the growth each year of the lottery’s unrestricted reserves. But lawmakers in the House appropriations committee balked at tying those funds to the grant, due to concerns that lottery reserves could fluctuate each year.
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