ATLANTA – State Representative David Wilkerson (D-Powder Springs) today announced his plans to file legislation during the 2021 legislative session to remove the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) requirement to earn the Zell Miller Scholarship in Georgia.
“With SAT and ACT exams being canceled across the country, it is time to revisit the 2011 decision to have a testing requirement for the Zell Miller scholarship,” said Rep. Wilkerson. “A student who graduated high school with a 3.7 GPA has already demonstrated academic excellence. A three-hour test should not be more important than 12 years’ worth of classroom work.”
In 2011, then Governor Nathan Deal introduced comprehensive changes to Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship program and created the Zell Miller Scholarship through House Bill 326. The Zell Miller Scholarship pays 100 percent of college tuition for students who graduate high school with a cumulative 3.7 GPA and a score of 1,200 on the SAT or 26 on the ACT. The HOPE Scholarship currently pays a percentage of tuition while requiring a cumulative 3.0 GPA, but it does not have the SAT/ACT requirement.
“On August 25, the University System of Georgia made the right decision by waiving the SAT/ACT requirement for college admission,” added Rep. Wilkerson. “It is now time for the legislature to do the right thing and remove the SAT/ACT requirement for the Zell Miller Scholarship. HOPE already has a course rigor requirement, and we do not need a test to let us know that these are our highest achieving students. The College Board, which administers the SAT, recently announced that almost half of the students who signed up for the August SAT have had their tests cancelled. This is after more than a million students had tests cancelled in the spring due to the pandemic.”
For more information on HB 326, which created the Zell Miller Scholarship, please click here.
Representative David Wilkerson represents the citizens of District 38, which includes portions of Cobb County. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 and currently serves on the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight, Juvenile Justice, Retirement and Science and Technology committees.
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