Jenna Colvin
Georgia has a national reputation for doing something rare in public policy: sticking with a good idea and making it better over time. For more than three decades, the HOPE Scholarship has helped millions of Georgians pursue education and build lives here at home.
Now Governor Brian Kemp has proposed another bold step: a one-time $325 million investment to endow the Georgia DREAMS Scholarship, aimed at helping students with the real costs that can make or break college—housing, meals, transportation, books, and technology.
If Georgia gets DREAMS right, it can be the strongest signal in a generation that our state is committed to developing our talent, workforce, and being the best state to live, work and raise a family. To make that promise complete, legislators should make one change to the program’s design. Unlike HOPE, DREAMS is currently structured so students at Georgia’s private nonprofit colleges can’t use it. Legislators can solve that with one simple adjustment: make DREAMS a follow-the-student scholarship, available to Georgia students at public institutions and private nonprofit colleges alike.
A need-based scholarship is strongest when it follows the student, because Georgia offers a real competitive advantage in college choices alongside the institutions in our public systems. We’re home to nationally recognized excellence: the highest-ranked college in Georgia is a private college; the top-ranked HBCU in the country, for the last 19 years, is a private college. Private colleges also offer distinctive campus experiences — including smaller, personalized communities where students are known and belong, and faith-centered communities for students who want to integrate their faith and learning. Perhaps more important for the students DREAMS is meant to reach, Georgia’s private colleges include proven engines of social mobility — institutions that help students change their family’s trajectory through a degree, a career, and a better life.
If Georgia is investing in a scholarship designed to help students reach their potential, the most powerful approach is simple: make DREAMS a follow-the-student scholarship so it can be used at the institution that best fits a student’s academic goals, location, and support needs.
This builds on our proven track record with HOPE. Students who earn HOPE can use the scholarship at eligible private colleges and universities—a recognition that student choice strengthens the state’s overall talent pipeline.
Georgia’s challenge isn’t finding talent — it’s keeping talent. Many Georgians have assumed HOPE solved the “stay home” for college problem. But data says we can do more: Georgia still has the lowest rate of students staying home for college in the South.
As other parts of the country face enrollment declines, out-of-state colleges are actively recruiting Georgia students—and they’re doing it the way the market works: with generous financial aid packages that make leaving Georgia more attractive. If DREAMS is Georgia’s next step forward, it should be designed for statewide impact—built to keep Georgia students in Georgia, regardless of whether they choose a public or private campus.
Including students at private nonprofit colleges is a comprehensive workforce strategy. Georgia’s private nonprofit colleges and universities educate over 70,000 students. These campuses are not outside the state’s talent ecosystem. They are part of it. They produce teachers, nurses, business leaders, and public servants. They anchor local economies, often in rural Georgia. And in many cases, they provide high-touch supports that help students persist—exactly what a need-based scholarship is meant to reinforce.
Keep the goal. Broaden the reach. A statewide DREAMS Scholarship would ensure Georgia’s investment lifts students at Georgia colleges—public and private—maximizing return for taxpayers and opportunity for families. DREAMS builds on the HOPE Scholarship’s strong record and reinforces our commitment to keeping Georgia talent at home.
Let’s give all Georgians the opportunity to make their HOPE and DREAMS happen.
Jenna Colvin, JD, is president of the Georgia Independent College Association, a higher education attorney, and former public university general counsel
