Transparency Over Talk: How Georgia is Rewriting College Value

Inside Georgia Degrees Pay: where facts, not promises, shape college decisions.

I first met Hank Huckaby in 2011, shortly after his appointment as Chancellor of the University System of Georgia. We were at a UGA leadership retreat, and after his remarks, I introduced myself. He already knew I’d been appointed as UGA’s new CIO and offered a knowing smile: “You’ve got a big job ahead of you.”

By then, Huckaby had worn many hats, including professor, state budget director, UGA finance chief, and elected legislator, before becoming Chancellor to mend frayed ties between the university system and the General Assembly. He succeeded. But I’ll never forget something he said at a faculty lunch the next year: “Too many people are questioning the value of a college degree. I never thought I’d see the day.”

That moment stuck with me. Chancellor Huckaby, who believed deeply that college was essential to the nation’s prosperity, took the rising skepticism as an afront. He saw it not just as a cultural shift, but as a leadership failure, a sign that his generation hadn’t done enough to defend, communicate, or prove the enduring value of higher education. It weighed on him, not just professionally, but personally.

Chancellor Huckaby passed away in 2021, but his commitment to defending the value of higher education still echoes across the state. In today’s Dispatch, I’ll explore how Georgia continues that work, under the leadership of Chancellor Sonny Perdue, confronting skepticism through data and transparency via the Georgia Degrees Pay site, launched in 2022.

Why it matters

Across the political spectrum, skepticism about the value of college has become rare consensus. Conservatives raise concerns about rising costs and workforce relevance; progressives highlight student debt and uneven economic returns. Even efforts like President Biden’s loan forgiveness plan have been seen as tacit admissions that higher ed has become unaffordable for many.

In this climate of doubt, Georgia Degrees Pay offers something increasingly rare: clarity. Launched in 2022 by the University System of Georgia, the site doesn’t sell college; it shows the math. Through transparent data on cost, outcomes, and earnings, it gives Georgia’s students and families the tools to make informed, grounded decisions about one of life’s biggest investments.

What Georgia Degrees Pay does

Think of it as a statewide dashboard. One that makes it possible to:

• Search degrees by school, format, or field.

• Compare tuition, net cost, scholarships, and average loan debt.

• See what graduates in a given major actually earn: 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation.

• View retention and graduation rates and whether students keep their HOPE/Zell scholarships.

For a 17-year-old facing their biggest life decision, this site offers rare clarity. It transforms vague college hopes into grounded personal insight: costs, potential earnings, and likely paths.

The features that matter most

The most powerful parts of the site aren’t flashy, they’re foundational.

• Earnings data with range: Instead of a single “average,” users see the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile outcomes for graduates. That nuance changes the conversation from “What do you make?” to “What’s possible?”

• Cost and debt transparency: Users can view net price, loan amounts, and even simulate the cost of taking longer to graduate. It turns theory into dollars.

• Success signals: Graduation rates, time-to-degree, and merit scholarship retention rates help families weigh not just what you study, but where you’re most likely to succeed.

Georgia Degrees Pay resists the oversimplification of ROI as a single number. Instead, it offers the raw materials, cost, debt, earnings, and time, that families need to define value on their own terms. In a landscape crowded with slogans and skepticism, this kind of radical honesty stands out. It doesn’t sell a dream; it equips students to make informed, high-stakes decisions with eyes wide open.

How it compares nationally:

While tools like the College Scorecard offer breadth, and Texas’s CREWS or My Colorado Journey offer ROI indexes, Georgia Degrees Pay does something rare: it balances statewide relevance with national context. It includes:

• Georgia vs. U.S. earnings data

• State-specific scholarship outcomes

• Side-by-side comparisons of institutions

It’s not trying to sell students on college. It’s equipping them to make informed decisions, grounded in data, not hope.

The bottom line

In a moment when higher education is under cultural and financial strain, Georgia Degrees Pay stands out not for its bells and whistles, but for its substance. It reflects a leadership ethic we need more of: less spin, more sunlight. Less “college is worth it,”more “here’s what our graduates actually earn.” That posture doesn’t just build trust. It builds possibility.

And for Georgia’s students, possibility, rooted in truth, is everything.