With the number of students at Georgia’s technical colleges on the decline, Gov. Nathan Deal has announced he will push legislation to reduce the grade point average requirement of students receiving the HOPE Grant.

Deal says of the 24,000 technical college students who left, 15 percent or 3,600, did so due to the new requirements.

“After crunching the numbers with our budget office, I’m glad to report we’ll be able to lower the GPA requirement for the HOPE Grant back to 2.0 after having raised it to 3.0 two years ago,” he says.

The change was made in 2011 in an effort to preserve the scholarship.

Deal estimates it will cost the state between $5 million and $8 million to bring back those students who lost the grant and for any additional ones who will be able to take advantage of it.

He has asked Rep. Stacey Evans, a Democrat from Smyrna, to sponsor the measure.

“Most of our students in technical colleges will be first from their families to go to college… they come from lower income families,” she says. “The difference between having the grant and not having the grant is the difference between their ticket to the middle class and not.”

Deal was flanked by leadership from both parties as he made the announcement.