GOP Plan Would Rein in HOPE Scholarship

ATLANTA – Gov. Nathan Deal and legislative leaders have
agreed on a plan to rescue Georgia’s cash-strapped HOPE scholarship
that would cap the awards so they no longer rise as tuition does,
effectively ending a 20-year-old audacious promise: free public
college tuition to any student who earned a B average or better.

Deal plans to announce the plan on Tuesday, says Senate
President Pro Tempore Tommie Williams.

Georgia’s popular HOPE program is set to go broke by 2012, a
victim of its own success after paying for more than 1 million
students to attend college.

While the state’s lottery proceeds have continued to grow, they
haven’t been able to keep pace with rising tuition and exploding
student enrollment.