Georgia made history on Tuesday, making a significant investment in its college hopefuls.
The amended fiscal year budget signed by Gov. Brian Kemp includes $325 million for need-based scholarships. It’s a concept that higher education advocates in the state have pushed for years, arguing that too many young people give up on their college dreams because they can’t afford to attend.
The funding is for the appropriately named DREAMS scholarship, which supporters say will help financially disadvantaged students for years to come. While Georgia has long been lauded for its merit-based aid programs through the HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships, Tuesday’s move helps it catch up to 48 other states that already offer comprehensive need-based aid.
“This is a watershed moment in higher education policy,” said Ashley Young, a senior education analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which has advocated for need-based aid for over a decade. “We believe that this measure is rooted in racial equity and will continue to support students with the greatest financial need who are committed to finishing college achieve success.”
Nearly a decade ago, Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, began to hear from high school counselors who lamented that many of their students couldn’t go to college, not because of their talent, but because of their family’s finances.
“They said it’s heartbreaking to see all the students who yearn to enroll in college after high school and get a degree and launch their adult life,” said Orrock. “Their parents can’t pull out a checkbook and write that check.”
The University System of Georgia called the investment “unprecedented” in a press release and said it would open the door for more private philanthropic investment.
“Governor Brian Kemp has taken a historic step to expand access, strengthen the workforce and support families in every region with an investment that reflects a bold vision for the state’s future and a deep belief in what Georgia students can achieve,” said USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue.
The final figures match what Kemp proposed in January: $25 million will go to scholarship funds, while the remaining $300 million will be used for an endowment that can make the scholarships viable in the long term.
That funding was in jeopardy last month, when during the budget process the Senate appropriations committee slashed it to $100 million. In response to that and other proposed cuts, Kemp wrote a letter last week to Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, and Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia; both men chair the appropriations committee in their respective chambers.
Kemp wrote that he remained “fully committed” to funding DREAMS at $325 million, saying that it would help students achieve their educational goals without assuming a debt that would follow them for decades.
“Eliminating barriers to post-secondary education helps build a highly skilled and ready workforce while also enabling Georgia students to achieve their education and career goals that may otherwise be out of reach,” Kemp wrote.
To help get back to the $325 million figure, he proposed pulling $145 million from the state’s lottery funds. Profits from the state lottery are used to fund educational programs, primarily the HOPE scholarship, which has helped more than 2.25 million students attend school since its inception more than three decades ago.
Orrock called it “welcome news” that her conservative colleagues agreed to take money from the lottery funds. It’s a move they’ve been hesitant to make in the past, worried of endangering funding for HOPE. But with $1.7 billion in lottery reserves, Orrock said it was “the smart thing to do.”
“I think everybody was focused on doing what was right,” said Rep. Chuck Martin, R-Alpharetta.
If they hadn’t, Orrock said Georgia — which has the second-highest average student debt in the country — would continue having citizens saddled with debt. “That money that could be going into our economy is instead being sent to some lender up in Philly or Chicago or New York,” said Orrock, who led a bipartisan study committee last year, which unanimously recommended the state embrace need-based aid.
Martin, who chairs the House higher education committee, is sponsoring a bill that would set the framework for the scholarship and how the funds are distributed. It would give control of the funds to the Georgia Student Finance Commission.
Chris Green, president of the GSFC, said that if the bill passes as many expect, the commission could begin making awards to students this August. The legislation would grant students up to $3,000 per academic year, and Green said it could be put towards tuition, housing, food and other costs students incur.
Some legislators raised concerns about the bill at a Monday House higher education committee meeting.
Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, said that the bill’s work requirement would keep students from being able to fully focus on their studies. “We don’t want to give scholarships to students that are going to fail,” said Clark, who is a lecturer at Emory University.
Unlike the HOPE scholarship, DREAMS would not be available to private university students. Jenna Colvin, president of the Georgia Independent College Association, told committee members Monday that was a mistake. If the money will only follow them to public schools, she said, “then we’re hurting students in our community, and we’re forcing them into a school that may not be the right fit for them.”
Despite those reservations, there appeared to be broad support for the bill during the committee meeting, with some Democrats thanking Kemp for his work.
“This is a big accomplishments for this governor, for this legislature, for people that have been working on it for years,” said Martin.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
