Nathan Deal’s “Gift” to Georgia’s Students: Huge Cuts to HOPE Scholarship
In 2011, mere months after he was elected, Gov. Deal announced he was giving “a gift to future generations of Georgia’s outstanding students”: he was about to slash the budget for the HOPE scholarship just as many low-income families needed help the most. Since those cuts, the number of HOPE recipients has fallen from 256,000 students in 2010-11 to fewer than 160,000 students this year. In addition, while the scholarship used to cover the full