Georgia lawmakers are agreeing to a state budget that will pay full tuition for all college students receiving a HOPE Scholarship while boosting pay for all state and university employees and public school teachers.
House and Senate leaders signed an agreement on Wednesday for the $32.5 billion state budget that begins July 1. The Senate voted 54-1 to approve the measure, with the House then approving it 170-3 in the closing hours of the 2023 session.
The budget cuts some teaching funds at the state’s public universities, but not as much as the Senate had initially proposed. The Senate proposed the cuts as part of a dispute with the House over rules to allow new hospitals to be built and funding of Augusta University’s hospital.
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Counting federal and other money, the state would spend nearly $56 billion.
Lawmakers agreed with Gov. Brian Kemp’s plans to pay full tuition for everyone receiving a HOPE college scholarship and to give all state employees and public school teachers $2,000 raises. In the agreement, some state law enforcement officers would get $6,000, up from a $4,000 bump sought by the House.
“The only people in this budget who are getting 100% of what they want are our students on HOPE,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Matt Hatchett, a Dublin Republican, said Wednesday morning as the agreement was signed.
The deal would eliminate the current two-tier system of lottery-funded HOPE Scholarships, going back to the original system of paying full tuition for all high school graduates who earn a B average. While Zell Miller scholars who earn higher grades and a minimum standardized test score get full tuition now, others only get 90%. The agreement also boosts the amount for HOPE Scholarship recipients who attend private colleges in Georgia.
Georgia’s budget pays to educate 1.75 million K-12 students and 465,000 college students, house 48,000 state…
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