HB 417: Education; tuition equalization grants at private colleges and universities; revise definition of approved school

Georgia's tuition equalization grant program helps students at certain approved private colleges and universities pay for school. To qualify, a private, for-profit (proprietary) college must meet a list of requirements written into state law, including how long it has operated in Georgia and what accreditation it holds. This bill rewrites part of that definition (O.C.G.A. § 20-3-411). It specifies that a qualifying school must be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges as a Level VI institution. It replaces the old rule requiring a school to have existed in Georgia for at least ten years with a new rule requiring the school to have been located in the state since on or before January 1, 2021, and it moves the compliance deadline from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2021. It also updates the list of factors regulators use to judge instructional quality and resources, adding academic instruction, research and library resources, and campus facilities language.

• Requires a qualifying proprietary college to be accredited specifically by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges as a Level VI institution.
• Replaces the old ten-years-of-existence requirement with a new rule requiring the school to have been located in Georgia since on or before January 1, 2021.
• Moves the deadline for meeting all approval requirements from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2021.
• Updates the review criteria list to reference academic instruction quality, research and library resources, and instructional campuses, facilities, or other physical sites.

This bill affects proprietary (for-profit) colleges and universities in Georgia that seek approval to receive tuition equalization grant funds, the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission that reviews and approves them, and students at those schools who rely on the grants to help pay tuition.

By changing the accreditation standard and shifting the operating-history and compliance deadlines from 2011 to 2021, the bill could change which private colleges qualify as approved schools, affecting which schools' students remain eligible for state tuition equalization grant funding.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-3-411(2)(B)(i), the definition of an approved proprietary institution eligible for tuition equalization grant funds.
• Adds a requirement that the school be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges specifically as a Level VI institution.
• Removes the requirement that a school have existed in Georgia for at least ten years and replaces it with a requirement that it be located in the state since on or before January 1, 2021.
• Changes the compliance deadline for meeting all approval requirements from January 1, 2011 to January 1, 2021.
• Revises the list of review criteria to include academic instruction quality, research and library resources, and instructional campuses, facilities, or other physical sites instead of physical plant facilities resources.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2025-02-18House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-02-13House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-02-12House Hopper (House)

• Houston Gaines (R, HD-120)Primary sponsor
• Bill Hitchens (R, HD-161)
• Robert Dickey (R, HD-134)
• Gerald Greene (R, HD-154)

• higher education funding
• tuition grants
• private colleges
• college accreditation