A Qualified Yes For SB 282

It seems pretty straightforward: University System of Georgia institutions ought to serve Georgians before all others.

Sen. Brandon Beach is hoping to make Georgia’s schools go further in doing so with SB 282. It would require 90% of early admissions spots being reserved for Georgia students.

And I support that–but with a major “however”.

While we should be doing all we can to keep our best and brightest students here, universities in every state are having to reckon with reductions in funding. So the far-more-valuable out-of-state student is a better bet than an in-state one.

If the state wants to deprive schools of important financial lifelines we need to offer the schools other ways of recouping that lost money. The presidents of UGA and Tech testified against SB 282 saying it would cost the schools millions of dollars.

Considering how meager state budgets are going to be in the immediate future it’s safe to say there’s not going to be any more money for schools.

So yes to SB 282.

Just not now.