The governor’s budget sets aside funding for long-awaited needs-based aid in Georgia

Nearly three-quarters of all state student aid money nationwide was based on financial need rather than merit in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the College Board. In Georgia, that number was around 1%. Georgia is an outlier when it comes to the money available for college students without the money for an education or […]

Georgia could soon significantly increase the amount of needs-based financial aid it provides to college students with the expansion of the DREAMS Scholarship, intended to be a companion to the merit-based HOPE Scholarship. Getty Images

Nearly three-quarters of all state student aid money nationwide was based on financial need rather than merit in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the College Board.

In Georgia, that number was around 1%.

Georgia is an outlier when it comes to the money available for college students without the money for an education or the grades and test scores for a merit-based scholarship.

But that could be changing with the expansion of the University of Georgia Foundation’s DREAMS Scholarship program announced by Gov. Brian Kemp Thursday.

Kemp proposed a one-time investment of $325 million in state funding for the program, which is seen as a potential companion to the merit-based HOPE Scholarship launched in 1993 under Gov. Zell Miller.

“In this era of high prices and new challenges for those graduating from high school, we also recognize the advantage need-based financial assistance can give to those who would not otherwise be able to access higher education,” Kemp said in an address to the state Legislature.

“Like their peers who have the means to attend college, these students have great dreams for rewarding careers and impactful lives, but they do not always have hope that those dreams can become reality,” he added.

The new scholarship could provide up to $3,000 to students who meet qualifications, including that they work or volunteer at least part time. Recipients also need to be Georgia residents, demonstrate financial need after all their other scholarships and grants are considered and complete a financial literacy course.

Georgia student loan borrowers have the second-highest average student loan balance in the nation at $42,300, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Of the $325 million, $25 million would be direct scholarship money, and the rest would serve as seed money for an endowment, the proceeds of which the foundation would withdraw from every year to pay for the scholarships. The plan is to grow the endowment so it could support offering tens of millions of dollars in aid to students.

Sen. Nan Orrock, an Atlanta Democrat, called the plan “a tremendous victory.”

“This is a work of labor of a good nine years from people around the state, committed educators and counselors who saw students just falling through the cracks because their families were not in a position to write a check for their higher education financing,” she said.

Orrock chaired a Senate committee that met several times last year to study college affordability. That committee estimated that annual funding of over $120 million could have funded about 99,000 students per year, Orrock said. The committee also recommended using money from the Georgia Lottery’s unrestricted reserve to pay for scholarships, a pot of money Kemp and his fellow Republicans have been loath to draw from for recurring expenses.

Orrock said she was unbothered that Kemp’s proposal did not match the committee recommendations.

“We’re on the road, and we’re optimistic that there’s going to be broad buy-in for this vision,” she said. “And as we see the success rate, the successes that come from it, we’re going to continue to build it to fully fill the need that’s out there.”

Ashley Young, senior education analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said advocates have been calling for needs-based aid in Georgia for decades and called the plan exciting but said she will be waiting to see further details, especially what kind of financial need students will need to demonstrate.

“It’s a little bit hard to understand how much of an impact it can make, just because we don’t have some of those specifics answered,” she said. “But certainly the model of ensuring that we are establishing a program that is based solely on student need and not merit is a step in the right direction.”

State Rep. Chuck Martin, an Alpharetta Republican who chairs the House Higher Education Committee, expressed confidence that the program will benefit Georgia students.

“I don’t have all the details, but I have great trust in the governor for putting that in the budget,” he said. “So I look forward to working with them on what’s necessary to see the implementation. We just want to see the investments that are made be productive, and I’m sure they have a plan to do that.”

SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE