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 A state-funded college scholarship based on financial need rather than academic merit took another step toward becoming a reality in Georgia on Tuesday when a Senate committee approved the bipartisan measure.

House Bill 1413 passed the Senate Higher Education Committee unanimously after three other bills were merged with it. The idea was to give them all a better chance of passage in the hectic, waning days of this year’s legislative session, with one vote on the Senate and House floors required rather than four.

The measure would place the Georgia Student Finance Authority in control of the fund, with $325 million in seed money already allocated in the amended budget for the current fiscal year.

“I want you to know how important the DREAM scholarship is for our state. And I want you to know how excited I am for the DREAM scholarship to be implementable,” committee chairman Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, said after the vote.

The measure advanced after many hearings this year and last year where experts testified about a relatively high dropout rate among students from low-income households. These students often must hold a job to get through college, which takes time away from their academic study. When their grade point average falls below the threshold for the merit-based HOPE scholarship, many quit school.

One major change was the deletion of medical school scholarships that were expected to cost $30,000 a year per student. Good idea, said Burns, but he said it was the wrong time to chisel it into law.

The new omnibus bill folds in three others.

House Bill 419 would allow opioid antagonists in certain college buildings and shield those who administer the life-saving drug from liability. House bill 1113 would clarify that part-time college students who are employees cannot participate in the state pension plan. And House Bill 962 would increase the individual cap on Georgia’s 529 college savings plan to $550,000, up from the current $235,000.

The measure can now go to the Senate floor for an up or down vote. 

The House passed the measure 165-2 in early March. But due to the Senate changes, the bill would have to return there.

All this would have to happen before lawmakers gavel out for a final time this year on April 2 or in the wee hours after.