ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal wants to lower the grade point average requirements from 3.0 to 2.0 for the Hope Grant to attract more technical college students.
The state says thousands of students lost their grant last year because they couldn't meet the higher standards.
Thousands of others students simply didn't enroll because they couldn't afford to pay what HOPE no longer covered.
Yeshemabeth Chin is a HOPE Grant scholarship recipient and without it attending Gwinnett Technical College would be very difficult.
"It's helped me financially and its really motivated me to continue doing good work," Commercial Construction student Yeshemabeth Chin said.
David McCulloch V.P. of Economic Development at Gwinnett Technical said Tuesday that enrollment was booming before the higher GPA were put in play and flattened afterwards.
"Many of our students ended up not being able to continue their education. Particularly the adult students," V.P. McCulloch said.
McCulloch believes that will change but will lowering standards eventually weaken Georgia's labor force.
"I think that when you look at the level of training the level of education that we provide through our technical college system it's the best," McCulloch said. "It's not only the best nationally but also globally as well."
This is just a proposal, but Gov. Deal believes if passed it place thousands of aspiring Georgia students back in the classroom.
Copyright 2013 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
