Georgia needs an educated workforce. That means making college more affordable, state senator says

Caption

The Senate Study Committee on Higher Education Affordability meets at the Capitol on Sept. 18, 2025. State Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta, center) chairs the committee.

Credit: Georgia State Senate Media

Georgia leaders are tackling the rising costs of higher education, with lawmakers exploring new solutions to help more students afford college and complete their degrees. By 2031, 72% of all jobs in Georgia will require more than a high school diploma. That's the basis of a state committee exploring how to make college more affordable. In this episode of Lawmakers Huddle, State Senator Nan Orrock joins Donna Lowry to discuss challenges and solutions.

TRANSCRIPT: 

Donna Lowry: In Georgia, just over half of young adults, about 51%, have completed some form of education beyond high school. During this year's legislative session, the Senate created a study committee on higher education affordability. Joining me is the chief sponsor of the resolution and chair of the committee, Sen. Nan Orrock of Atlanta. Thank you, Senator, for coming on Lawmakers Huddle.  

Sen. Nan Orrock: So happy to be with you, Donna. Thank you, and I look forward to our discussion. Very important, how are we going to educate our youth, build the next generation of successful families with decent incomes and being a vital part of our workforce here.  

Donna Lowry: You kind of got into what I wanted to ask you, and that's how you got to the point where you wanted to explore this whole idea of the affordability of higher education.  

Sen. Nan Orrock: It goes back some years. And I had a meeting with people that came from high schools — their job at the high schools is to do college counseling. They came to me with the startling fact: There's a huge demographic of students who want to go on and seek higher education, but it's not affordable for them. And they may not qualify for the HOPE, which is the high — the kids with the highest grades — but they're absolutely eligible and admissible to go to college. But their mom and their dad cannot pull out the checkbook and write those costly, big, fat checks for the tuition and all the other attendant costs, you know, of going to college. You're most often not living under your parents' roof anymore. You've got the room, the board, you've got book fees. The sticker price there is a shock. Some young people who qualified grade-wise for HOPE still need more assistance.  

Donna Lowry: This is a big workforce issue. Georgia is attracting all of these companies coming in and they need a workforce.  

Sen. Nan Orrock: And we need to — there are two states that don't have universal tuition grant programs that are based on — to meet the needs of students: that's Georgia and New Hampshire. The numbers that we used to make was that the state put in 75% and the student's tuition paid 25% of the cost of education. The state's share now has gone down to 54%, so do the math. The student share is up way above 40%.  

Donna Lowry: So I want to talk about another area of the resolution. And that says that Georgia has the third-highest graduate and undergraduate loan debt in the nation. And I will point out that during that second hearing, some of that debt is from individuals who went to college elsewhere, but came to Georgia for jobs. Did that shock you how high it is in Georgia?  

Sen. Nan Orrock: The heartbreaking stories that you hear. There's a middleman in this student loan situation. That's the private lenders. You have not seen the misery that flows from having that middleman who's figuring out how to meet his bottom line, stretching these loan payments out forever and ever. We had a call with a woman in Milledgeville who still owes as much now as the loan that she secured. And she paid for 10 years and the money added up to pay her debt. And this woman has done everything by the book, kept all of her records, etc. And she is just flabbergasted that this loan has not been paid off. And she's in her final year of a 10-year payment plan. And they're saying now, "No, you need to reconsolidate and renegotiate this loan."

Donna Lowry: Well, there are a lot of people who are paying attention to what you're doing, and I want to thank you for coming on Lawmakers Huddle.

Sen. Nan Orrock: It was my pleasure, Donna. It's always great to talk policy with you.

Donna Lowry: Well, thank you. For our audience, you can listen to this entire interview with Sen. Orrock on Battleground Ballot Box: Lawmakers Huddle podcast. For GPB News, I'm Donna Lowry.