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Georgia lawmaker hopes to eliminate SAT/ACT requirement from HOPE, students stuck

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Updated  September 7, 2020 5:38pm EDT
Education
FOX 5 Atlanta

Lawmaker hopes to eliminate SAT/ACT requirement from Georgia scholarship

State Rep. David Wilkerson plans to file a bill in the upcoming legislative session to remove the SAT/ACT requirement.

ATLANTA - They are already on campus, but many college freshmen across Georgia hope they will get a chance to retake the SAT or ACT this fall.

The college admissions exams are only offered on select dates throughout the year and since March, many of them have been canceled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"I do not feel like we're likely to have a testing opportunity between now and December," said Kelly Spence, whose son, Brennan Smith is a first-year student at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.

December 30 is the new deadline set by the Georgia Student Finance Commission board for students who hope to earn the top tier of the HOPE Scholarship.  

To qualify for HOPE, students must earn a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) during high school. The requirements are much more stringent, however, for the Zell Miller Scholarship. Students need a 3.7 GPA and at least a 1200 on the SAT or a 26 on the ACT.  

Zell Miller pays 100% of a student's tuition at any public college or university in Georgia, while HOPE pays only a percentage.

Spence said her son earned the grades to qualify, but needs to improve his test scores and has not yet gotten that chance.  

"When I think of some of his classmates especially, that is a huge financial burden, like huge," said Spence.

State Rep. David Wilkerson, D-Powder Springs, said he first learned about the issue because his own son graduated high school this year. But he also received countless emails from parents worried their children will miss out on the full scholarship.

"Tests were just canceled this past weekend," Rep. Wilkerson explained. "Families are going out of state. Families are actually hunting down ACTs and SATs."

Wilkerson plans to file a bill in the upcoming legislative session to remove the SAT/ACT requirement.

"We need to do something immediately for those families and then also, looking at it proactively for the future, do we really need that requirement? And I would say we don't," said Rep. Wilkerson.

State lawmakers added the Zell Miller Scholarship and its accompanying qualifications back in 2011 when there was concern that the popular HOPE Scholarship program might run out of money.  

"Going forward, the HOPE is doing extremely well. The HOPE fund has money in it.  It's not like a regular budget that's been going up and down due to the pandemic and other factors," Wilkerson said.