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PRESS RELEASE: LDF Applauds Historic Passage of Georgia's DREAMS Scholarship Program, Calls for Equitable Implementation
The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) applauds Georgia’s passage of Senate Bill 556, which establishes the DREAMS Scholarship, the first statewide need-based financial aid program for higher education in the state’s history. The legislation sets forth the statutory framework for the $325 million investment, which will expand educational opportunities for students and support the strengthening of Georgia’s talent pipeline, including for Black Georgians.
As the legislation heads to Governor Kemp’s desk for his signature, LDF calls on the Georgia Student Finance Commission and public colleges and universities across the state to ensure equitable implementation of SB 556. LDF has worked alongside coalition partners — and most importantly, with students across the state — to advocate for need-based aid as a critical step towards improving access to higher education for low-income students across Georgia.
To ensure the program is implemented effectively and fairly, LDF advocates for equitable distribution of funding to students who demonstrate the greatest need. LDF also advocates for the work requirement to be interpreted broadly to recognize the various ways that students engage on their campuses and in their communities, including participation in student organizations. Institutions must guard against unnecessary barriers to access.
“Georgia’s DREAMS Scholarship program represents a historic step towards expanding college access,” said Hamida Labi, Senior Policy Counsel at LDF. “This program holds the promise to ensure Georgia students, including low-income Black students, are better supported in their educational journeys. The passage of SB 556 represents a critical step by our state to improve college affordability and reduce students’ debt burdens, which has disproportionately impacted Black borrowers, especially Black women. We look forward to working with stakeholders to ensure the program is implemented in an equitable way.
“Georgia’s establishment of DREAMS marks a pivotal advancement in the state’s efforts to make higher education more accessible and equitable for all students,” added Ray Li, Policy Counsel at LDF. “With sustained investment and thoughtful implementation, the program has the potential to transform educational opportunity for generations of students. LDF looks forward to seeing the DREAMS Scholarship grow in the coming years, expanding to more students and more schools across the state.”
Need-based aid is essential to addressing Georgia’s deep and persistent college affordability crisis, particularly for Black students, other students of color, low-income students, first-generation students, rural students, and other historically underserved communities in the state. Despite relatively lower tuition costs, many students in Georgia face significant financial barriers to higher education, contributing to some of the highest student debt burdens in the nation and leaving those with the greatest need without adequate support. Other scholarship programs have long dominated the state’s aid approach, often failing to reach students with the least financial resources. A robust need-based system is therefore critical not only to expanding access, but to improving college completion and reducing racial and economic disparities in educational attainment.
Learn more about Georgia’s higher education affordability crisis.
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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF’s archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.
