GateKey a Model for Governor's Statewide Scholarship Plan

State officials will soon be looking at GateKey Scholarship program to implement part of Gov. Nathan Deal's Complete College Georgia Initiative, which he announced today.

Georgia is one of 10 states awarded $1 million by Complete College America to fuel policy innovations and reforms aimed at significantly increasing college completion, according to the press release.

In addition to better supporting students who work, allowing easier transfers between colleges and improving remediation programs, the governor's plan will create a needs-based scholarship program.

"The governor’s staff will look at successful programs, including Cartersville’s GateKey Scholarship program, as models for this needs-based scholarship," the release states. "This program will identify low-income middle school students with college potential and provide them with support through high school. Students who complete the program will receive a tuition scholarship."

According to Cartersville City Schools board member Kelley Dial, Superintendent Howard Hinesley "brought [GateKey] to us and modeled it on a similar program he started in Pinellas County in Florida."

GateKey began in 2007 and gives scholarships to college-bound students, who lack financial and other support, as early as the fourth grade, according to .

It requires a C average in academics and holds students accountable for their behavior — they are required to remain crime and drug free.

The Cartersville Schools Foundation, which oversees the program, collects money from private donors, according to .

In 2010, 50 scholars were in the program, some as young as 10, according to the radio station.

While Deal is pursuing seed funding for the statewide scholarship program, he also will form a commission to focus on "higher education funding, particularly examining ways to change the funding formula to incentivize completion [of college]," according to the press release.

Learn more about Complete College Georgia Initiative, including its strategies, here. It is a piece of Deal’s broader Georgia Competitiveness Initiative.