UPDATE: You can see how your State Representative voted here.
HB 326, the HOPE bill, passed the House of Representatives today 152-22.
You can read coverage from the AJC here.
Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Smyrna, argued against the bill, saying it hurts a program that gives all students opportunity. Evans, a former HOPE recipient, argued for a sliding scale, using income to determine if students could get more than the 90 percent of their tuition.
Prior to the full House meeting, Republicans in the Rules Committee blocked Democrats’ attempts to amend the bill to limit HOPE to families with incomes of $100,000 and under.
“HOPE is a wonderful advertisement for college for our students,” Evans said. “We deserve to keep that dream alive for them.”
Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, D-Atlanta, stood in support of the bill, telling the chamber that Gov. Nathan Deal made several concessions to make the proposal truly bipartisan.
“There must be shared sacrifice,” she said. “HOPE does not belong to rich or poor. It belongs to all of us.”
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