HOPE bill signed by Deal

Following a passage by the State Senate and House, Gov. Nathan Deal signed the amended HOPE bill on March 15. The bill changes the requirements for the HOPE Scholarship for students in Georgia while cutting the amount of scholarship aid students receive from HOPE.

Students who maintain a 3.0 GPA will still receive the scholarship, but it will not cover the full cost of tuition. Future HOPE aid will be based on lottery revenue and not tuition rates. In addition, HOPE will no longer distribute aid for books or fees.

The only students who will have their full tuition covered will be those considered Zell Miller Scholars. To be a Zell Miller Scholar, students must graduate high school with a 3.7 GPA and have at least a 1200 SAT score. Zell Miller Scholars must keep a 3.3 GPA during their time at college.

House Bill 326 was changed so that HOPE will only cover remedial courses offered in technical colleges. Before, it would not cover remedial courses at all. Students attending private colleges in Georgia will only receive $3,600—a $400 decrease from the current amount.

The bill will also limit the number of chances students have to regain the scholarship. Currently, students have unlimited opportunities to earn back HOPE. Under House Bill 326, they will only have one.

Other changes include reducing pre-k school year from 180 to 160 days and class sizes increasing from 20 to 22. This will open 2,000 more slots statewide—3,000 less than the original proposal. Pre-k teachers will also see a pay cut of up to 10 percent.

Deal praised the bill in a press release sent out on March 15.

“With today’s signing, we have closed a $300 million shortfall in the next year, we have pulled HOPE and Georgia Pre-K from the brink of bankruptcy and we have preserved our state’s elite status for having the most generous benefit programs in the nation,” Deal said. “Georgians are blessed to have legislative leaders who put aside politics to craft a new law of generational importance.”

During the four-hour Senate debate about the bill, Sen. Jason Carter of Decatur proposed an amendment to grandfather in current college students and reform lottery revenue to direct more money to education. The amendment was defeated and will not be included in the bill.

According to Carter, lottery revenues will fund less than 22 percent of tuition costs in 2020.

Posted by Matt Chambers on Mar 10 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.