Students who graduate from high schools that lost accreditation or attend colleges working to regain it would be eligible for the HOPE scholarship under a bill the Senate Higher Education Committee passed Wednesday.
The Atlanta, Clayton and DeKalb school districts are working to maintain approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Morris Brown College lost accreditation in 2002, and officials are still trying to get it back.
"We don't want the children to suffer because of whatever crisis is happening," said Sen. Donzella James, D-College Park, the sponsor of Senate Bill 119.
The bill would allow students to receive the scholarship if they graduate from a high school that had been accredited within the previous two years.
State law allowed HOPE to go to students who attend a college that was previously accredited within the past seven years, but Morris Brown fell out of that window this fiscal year. The bill would extend the time to within the last 11 years and specifies that the college must be working to reattain accreditation.
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