Financially strapped college students in Georgia often must drop out for want of money for food and shelter, but their prospects could improve under a new initiative from Gov. Brian Kemp.

The Republican governor, nearing the end of his second and final term amid an uproar over rising costs, wants to put $325 million of taxpayer funds into a scholarship program for students with limited means.

Georgia’s HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships are generous but require students to earn high grades. Georgia is one of just two states that do not offer scholarships solely for financial need.

If the General Assembly adopts Kemp’s proposal, then New Hampshire will stand alone as the only state that does not offer need-based funding.

“I’m really excited about it,” said Sam Aleinikoff, a former math teacher who created and runs College AIM, an organization that helps metro Atlanta students access higher education. “I think it’s a huge step in the right direction.”

Kemp’s gesture comes after a Senate study committee recommended that Georgia spend $126 million a year on need-based financial aid for 98,000 students, potentially pulling money from the same source that funds the HOPE and Zell scholarships and pre-kindergarten. The committee noted that the funding source, the Georgia Lottery Corporation, had nearly $2 billion in reserves.

Students and other advocates who testified to the committee described the plight of poor students who had to hold jobs to pay their bills. The time away from studies undermined their grades, eventually making them ineligible for the HOPE money that got them to college. That loss led to even longer hours at work and an academic downward spiral until they dropped out.

“By the end of their freshman year, 40% of those young people are no longer qualified to get that HOPE scholarship,” said Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, who led the study committee. “In many cases that is tied to the fact that they are out working one or two — in some cases we had students testify that they had three jobs,” she said. “Surprise, surprise they are challenged on keeping their grades up.”

Meanwhile, other states have been attracting Georgia students with larger financial aid packages.

Georgia has the lowest home state college attendance in the region, according to testimony before the committee, with 78% of high school graduates staying here versus the 91% who stay in Mississippi, 86% in Florida and 85% in South Carolina.

The committee cited a 2019 report by the Selig Center for Economic Growth, a business think tank at the University of Georgia, that said Georgia could eventually suffer a shortage of skilled labor if it did not create a need-based financial aid program. Without one, “Georgia is leaving potential economic growth on the table and shortchanging its citizens,” the report said.

Orrock’s study committee was authorized by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican running for governor. The committee’s recommendations passed unanimously, with bipartisan support.

Orrock speculated that her Republican colleagues were compelled by the facts unearthed by her committee and by the upcoming elections “where voters are saying affordability is the issue of the day.”

Kemp’s proposal would pour money into the DREAMS Scholarship Program, which was founded recently by the University System of Georgia Foundation under the leadership of Chancellor Sonny Perdue.

It had $4 million in need-based scholarship funding to distribute last fall. Kemp’s proposal would expand that significantly, offering $25 million in scholarships initially. The remaining $300 million would be used as seed money to attract private donations.

While advocates are excited about the promise of the program, they have questions about some of its stipulations. The DREAMS (Dedicating Resources to Educationally Advance More Students) website says students must work part time to earn a scholarship.

That requirement could undermine the very purpose of helping them maintain high academic achievement, said Ashley Young, an analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which promotes equitable access to higher education.

“We feel this eligibility factor could be more of a barrier than an access point for students who actually need the money the most,” she said. She and other advocates are also concerned by vague language about the distribution of the funding. The website says DREAMS money will be distributed to more than two dozen schools and that the amounts will “vary by institution.”

It does not say how.

Young and other advocates suggested that the money be allocated based on eligibility for federal Pell grants, which are income-based. Otherwise, students at highly ranked schools, such as Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, which already have a healthy alumni donor base, could wind up with more support than students at lower ranked colleges and universities that contend with a higher ratio of low-income students.

Some also said students attending private colleges and universities should be eligible.

However, the biggest concern initially is the funding.

Annual allocations must grow fivefold from that initial round of $25 million to meet the study committee’s $126 million goal. Yet Aleinikoff, the former teacher turned advocate, said the larger figure was offered as a “paired down” and more affordable target.

“The need far exceeds even that $126 million number,” he said. “The need is expansive.”

To produce $126 million a year using investment income, the endowment would have to grow to around $1.8 billion, estimated Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania. As a member of Orrock’s study committee, he advocated for the endowment idea.

Georgia’s lottery program has about that much in reserves, and the committee suggested tapping that fund for DREAMS. But that would be a non-starter for Burns, who as chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, was a key voice in Republican support for the study committee’s recommendations.

HOPE is a sacrosanct national model, Burns said, and the reserves are needed to keep it funded through economic rough patches.

Burns, who said he worked his way through college, rising to become president of Gordon State College in Barnesville until 2017, agrees with the work requirement so long as it is limited. He cited statistics that say students lose half a letter grade for each 15 hours per week of employment during college.

He also praised Kemp for the downpayment to the program and Perdue for setting it up in the first place. He said businesses and “community partners” need to donate to the fund, and he said he is confident that will happen since they stand to benefit from an educated workforce.

“This initiative will support thousands of Georgians — thousands of Georgians — in perpetuity if we do it correctly,” he said.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.