Saving the HOPE Scholarship

Governor Deal and legislative leaders announced Tuesday a massive restructuring of the HOPE scholarship for the program to continue amid severe revenue and lottery shortfalls.  One of the legislature’s top priorities for this session was ensuring HOPE can be sustained and exist for years to come.  The program has far-reaching impacts from education, economic development to creating jobs in the state.  It is vital part of Georgia and we have spent a great amount of time deciding on the best and most effective way to move forward.

The governor’s proposal would maintain the current merit-based HOPE Scholarship for students with a GPA of 3.0.  The HOPE Scholarship award, the private HOPE award and the HOPE grant will be adjusted annually based on lottery revenue. 

One new aspect of the measure creates the Zell Miller Scholarship program for those students who graduate from high school with a GPA of 3.7 or higher and have received a score of at least 1200 on combined Critical Reading Score and Math Score on the SAT or have received a score of at least 26 on the ACT. These students will receive full tuition at Georgia’s public institutions and the full private HOPE award at our private institutions.

Lottery revenues also fund our state’s Pre-Kindergarten as a universal program serving four-year olds throughout Georgia.  The revised funding measure would maintain that important program by moving from a six and a half-hour Pre-K program to a four-hour program.  This would allow us to add 5,000 slots to address the Pre-K waiting list.  The bill seeks to add $4.2 million to increase quality in the Georgia Pre-K program and $4.5 million for extended day slots for at-risk children.

Relating to need-based aid, HOPE Scholarship funds will be paid in full without taking Pell eligibility into account.  Our Pell-eligible students will then be able to use these federal funds to cover the costs of college-going expenses beyond tuition costs.  The governor has suggested that $20 million be appropriated to a one percent loan program and the Georgia Student Finance Commission will work to raise private matching funds for $10 million of this investment. These student loans can also be forgiven altogether if loan recipients become certified and teach in a public K-12 school in the science or math field. Each year of service in the classroom will forgive one year of the student loan.

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Sen. Jeff Mullis serves as Chairman of the Transportation Committee. He represents the 53rd Senate district which includes Chattooga, Dade, and Walker counties and portions of Catoosa County.  He can be reached at his office in Atlanta at 404.656.0057 or by email at jeff.mullis@senate.ga.gov.