Gov. Nathan Deal stated he will push to increase funding for the HOPE scholarship program following the start of the 2013 legislative session Monday. In 2011, Deal signed a bill that reduced HOPE from full coverage to 90 percent of the 2011 tuition rates for high school students who have a 3.0 GPA. It also eliminated money for books and fees and gave students just one opportunity to regain the scholarship if they lost it due to falling grades.The change, officials said, was due to declining Georgia Lottery sales, which, between 2009 and 2011, decreased by more than $71 million.Deal is proposing to increase what each HOPE scholar receives by 3 percent, along with restoring the pre-kindergarten calendar back to 180 days and giving pre-K teachers a 4.9 percent raise.According to the governor’s office, the Georgia Lottery Corp. transferred more than $901 million to the State Treasury’s Lottery for Education Account during the 2012 fiscal year — up more than $55 million from the previous year.For the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year, the Georgia Lottery Corp. transferred more than $221 million, up 8 percent from 2012.