House votes to expand HOPE grant for tech students

Georgia’s House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would pay full tuition for the state’s highest achieving technical college students.

House Bill 697, sponsored by Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Smyrna, would create a Zell Miller Grant Scholar designation for tech students earning at least a 3.5 grade-point average.

The legislation is part of Gov. Nathan Deal’s plan to expand the HOPE grant program, but it differs from Evans’ initial proposal that would have paid full tuition for all HOPE grant recipients, which requires at least a 2.0 GPA.

The grant expansion is expected to cover about 20 percent of students, or 16,000, currently enrolled in the state’s technical college system.

— Janel Davis

Senate backs bill to make top DeKalb job nonpartisan

The state Senate has approved a bill that would turn election of the chief executive officer in DeKalb County into a nonpartisan vote.

State Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, sponsored Senate Bill 95 so that only counties that have a CEO would elect candidates outside the party primary system. But the bill is specific to DeKalb, which has the state’s only elected CEO job. County commissioners in DeKalb would continue to be elected by party, as they are in all Georgia counties.

Tuesday’s vote on the measure was 29-23, a close margin that prompted a vote to reconsider the bill Wednesday. That vote failed, 17-35, which means the proposal now heads to the state House for consideration.

— April Hunt