By Nancy Badertscher and Laura Diamond
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
7:00 a.m. Sunday, December 12, 2010
Georgia students and their families can expect to spend more of their own money on college now that lawmakers and Gov.-elect Nathan Deal have put dramatic changes to the HOPE scholarship on the table.
Suggestions include decreasing the scholarship’s amount, raising the minimum grade-point average from a 3.0 to a 3.2 and eliminating remedial classes from what’s covered, said Rep. Len Walker, R-Loganville, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee.
Deal said last week that the intent is to “salvage the program.” Walker expects to have formal recommendations by Jan. 1.
“HOPE will continue for our deserving students, but it just won’t be the same HOPE they’ve seen before,” Walker said. “But it is not reasonable for us to expect the scholarship to cover 100 percent of tuition anymore.”
The merit-based program has helped more than 1.4 million Georgians attend college since 1993, but lawmakers say the state lottery can no longer keep up with rising student enrollment and tuition costs.
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[Source – Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
