Area technical college students and those hopeful to attend will be happy to hear about a new Senate Bill receiving support from the Governor and House Speaker that would lower the requirement for HOPE grant recipients from a 3.0 grade point average to 2.0.
 
District 30 Senator Mike Dugan supports the bill saying it would allow for more students to attend technical colleges, get certified for a job and then get them into the workplace.
 
“This is one of those things that government actually can do,” Dugan said Thursday. “We have businesses across the state saying they need workers that are skilled in specific areas… and there is a whole technical college system that trains and certifies, but they just don’t have enough students that can afford to go. It seems like a good business decision to me.”

HOPE reforms were implemented when Georgia Governor Nathan Deal first took office, resulting in a disproportionate drop in technical school system enrollment.  The state says it is now able to expand funds for the HOPE grants and return to the previous qualifications because of recent growth in lottery revenues. In the first six months of this fiscal year, deposits were up $32 million, a 7.6 percent increase over the same period the year before.