Two new laws bring good news for charitable giving in Georgia

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Jun 21, 2024

Georgia law expands protections for donors' privacy and confidence that their gift will be used as intended.

Two new laws bring good news for charitable giving in Georgia

Key Points

Georgia lawmakers passed two new bills in 2024 that strengthen protections for charitable giving in Georgia.
The Donor Intent Protection Act allows donors to file a legal complaint if their gift is misused.
The Personal Privacy Protection Act protects individuals from having their personal information publicly disclosed by the government when they volunteer for or financially support a cause.

Guest post by Megan Schmidt, senior director of government affairs at Philanthropy Roundtable

There are over 64,000 nonprofit organizations in Georgia, and in 2021 Georgia donors gave $9.4 billion to charity, according to the IRS. These generous donations to charitable organizations are about to get important protections under two bills passed by the state legislature in 2024.

Gov. Brian Kemp signed the Donor Intent Protection Act and the Personal Privacy Protection Act into law. Both pieces of legislation offer donors and charities new avenues to ensure the proper use of donations, while safeguarding donors’ right to privacy in giving.

The two bills offer legal protections for donors and nonprofits to ensure charitable giving can continue freely and effectively in the state. When donors are free to give where and how they choose without fear of their information being unfairly released or their donations being misused, charitable organizations are better suited to help those who need their support.

The Donor Intent Protection Act

Sponsored by Sen. Bill Cowsert (R), the Donor Intent Protection Act passed the legislature on a strong bi-partisan vote, co-sponsored by Sen. John F. Kennedy (R) and Rep. Matt Reeves (R).

The Donor Intent Protection Act provides a legal pathway for donors to enforce written endowment agreements. Donors may give to a charitable endowment with specific written instructions for how they would like their gift used or invested.

Prior to this bill, when a charity agreed, accepted the gift and then violated the agreement, donors had no legal standing or recourse to enforce their written agreement. But under the Donor Intent Protection Act, donors now have the ability to file a legal complaint in court if their gift is misused.

This protection encourages giving and benefits donors, charities, and the many individuals served by nonprofit organizations in Georgia. It also bolsters levels of trust between donors and charities by adding an extra layer of protection for donor intent. Donors can give freely and generously without concern their mutually agreed upon instructions will be violated.

The Personal Privacy Protection Act

The second bill, the Personal Privacy Protection Act, also earned bipartisan support and protects individuals who volunteer or give to causes they care about from having their personal information publicly disclosed by the government.

The ability for donors to give privately to causes they believe in is a First Amendment right that historically has been upheld. In the 2021 Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld donor privacy and concluded that California’s bulk collection of nonprofit donor information was unconstitutional.

Georgia donors should be able to give privately to causes they care about without fear of retaliation or public exposure. Whatever their motivation for privacy, this bill is aligned with the U.S Supreme Court decision and makes any unlawful disclosure of this information a misdemeanor under the law. This also provides protection for nonprofits from being forced to release their donor and member lists to government agencies and officials.

Laws Like These Encourage Generosity in Helping Our Neighbors and Communities

Donors give to nonprofits whose cause and mission they support. With the enactment of these two bills, Georgians can continue donating generously without fear their wishes will be violated or their identity disclosed.

The Donor Intent Protection Act is now law in three states and the Personal Privacy Protection Act is now law in 19 states. The protections offered by both bills will encourage donors to remain generous with their resources more than they might otherwise be.

Donors in states without these protections face uncertainty when they give because they don’t have the reassurance their identity is protected or that the court will grant them legal standing in the case of a violation.

Georgia is primed to move forward with a healthy charitable giving environment with the passage of these two bills so communities in need around the state can benefit from the generosity of Georgians.

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Atlanta has $29.8 million in public safety funding for 2025. Here’s why it matters.

by Josh Crawford | Jun 17, 2024

Atlanta's public safety funding for 2025 invests in best practices for better community safety.

Atlanta has $29.8 million in public safety funding for 2025. Here’s why it matters.

Key Points

The Atlanta City Council approved nearly $30 million dollars for public safety funding as part of the 2025 city budget.
They also approved a 3.8% increase in the number of authorized positions within the Atlanta Police Department.
More officers on the street and more tools for those officers generally mean less crime.

Atlanta’s City Council has adopted its budget for 2025, which includes $29.8 million for public safety funding as well as a 3.8% increase in the number of authorized positions within the police department.

This is good news for the city. In the first quarter of 2024, murders in Atlanta were up 15%—a trend that runs opposite to other major cities and to Atlanta’s own drop in violent crime in 2023.

While it’s not helpful to overreact to changes during such a short period of time, the increase is a reminder that Atlanta must keep prioritizing best practices to lower crime, reduce fear, and foster an environment where opportunity can thrive.

Atlanta's murder rate is up 15% in the first quarter of 2024.

Atlanta public safety funding to boost a key element of the justice system

Atlanta, like many cities around the country, began to see increased homicides in the late 2010s that then exploded with the onset of the COVID-19 lockdowns, urban unrest, and changes in policing practices in 2020. Atlanta then had three of its deadliest years in decades in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Thankfully Atlanta’s elected leaders have not sat by idle. By investing more in policing, Atlanta Mayor Dickens and the city council are attempting a time-tested truism: more police means less crime.

Police are the element of the criminal justice system most visible to the public and the arm with which citizens are most likely to interact. As Eastern Kentucky University professor Dr. Gary Potter puts it, “[t]he American system of criminal justice is predicated on an assumption of effective policing. After all, in order to deter criminals and punish the evil-doers you have to catch them.”

This is more than theoretical. Research on policing and crime has repeatedly found that more well-managed police leads to less crime. Most recently, a 2018 study looked at police and crime data from 1960 through 2010 and concluded that every $1 spent on policing generates about $1.63 in social benefits, mostly through reductions in homicides.

Atlanta City Council invests in technology for a safer community environment

Atlanta’s public safety funding will go to more than just additional police staffing and pay incentives for officers. Other allocations include:

$3.4 million for technology upgrades like body cameras, data storage, and identification technology.
$750,000 for additional security cameras in city parks and other areas highlighted by the department.

Of particular importance are the funds allocated for additional cameras.

Washington, D.C., which until recently had been plagued by skyrocketing homicides and carjackings, recently implemented a similar expanded security camera program. As a result of the program, DC chief of police Pamela Smith recently revealed a substantial increase in arrests for shootings, carjackings, and robberies. Importantly, she also noted an increase in cooperation from crime-weary citizens due to increased trust in the department.

Hopefully the new investments will produce similar results in Atlanta, where residents are equally crime-weary and hoping for relief.

9 Benefits of Work for Teens and Young Adults

by David Bass | Jun 14, 2024

In addition to earning money, the benefits of work for teens include positive impacts on mental health, physical health, and relationships.

9 Benefits of Work for Teens and Young Adults

Key Points

Research has shown that there are numerous benefits of work for teens and young adults across all areas of life, including finances, relationships, and physical and mental health.
Labor force participation rates show teens and young adults are working less than previous generations.
Encouraging teens and young adults to work can be a valuable way of helping them lead meaningful lives and become healthy, resilient adults.

As summer break approaches for many teens and young adults, most will be looking forward to leisurely activities like a trip to the beach, camping, or even summer camp. Kids at this developmental age indeed need relaxation and rejuvenation over summer breaks, but it is also a valuable opportunity to reap lifelong benefits.

Parents, guardians, or even mentors may want to encourage their teen to get a summer job—not just to earn a little spending money but because work has many other benefits to the health and resiliency of teens.

It’s true that the brains and bodies of kids need some time to relax and rejuvenate after a long school year—and taking a much-needed break in the summer months can be a good thing. There’s also a lot to be said for getting a summer job that teaches the value of work and offers benefits that reap dividends over the course of their lives.

Work is good for young people

Research shows that seasonal and part-time employment for teenagers and young adults has almost universally positive impacts. The truth is that holding down a summer job is something that previous generations commonly experienced—and enjoyed—but kids today have been comparatively shielded from working until much later in life.

In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the summer labor force participation rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in July 2023 was only 60.2%—slightly down from the previous year’s rate of 60.4%. By comparison, back in July 1989, the rate peaked at 77.5% before trending downward over the next 20-plus years to settle between 60.0% and 60.6% from 2012 to 2018.

Since then, the rate dropped significantly to 57.3% in 2020 due to the economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, though it has since returned to pre-COVID levels at around 60%.

Contrasting by gender, the 2023 gap in summer labor force participation was the smallest on record—at only 0.4%—with only 60.4% of young men working compared to 60.0% for young women. Interestingly—and not surprisingly—the gender gap was its widest at 40.9 percentage points back nearly 75 years ago in July 1950. Also not surprising is that today most summer jobs for teens and young adults are in leisure and hospitality (25%), retail trade (18%), and education and health services (13%).

Clearly, the current generation of teens and young adults is working less than their predecessors. But what’s the impact on their lives?

They not only miss out on the financial benefits of earning money, but also on learning “soft” skills and attitudes that will positively impact them for the rest of their lives, including time management, respect for supervisors, following instructions, being reliable, demonstrating an upbeat attitude, dressing appropriately, accepting constructive criticism, and even using work-appropriate language.

As teens and young adults take on fewer seasonal or part-time jobs, they miss out on the benefits of work.

In July 2023, the summer labor force participation rate for 16- to 24-year-olds was 60.2%. In July 1989, the rate peaked at 77.5%. The drop means more young people are missing out on the benefits of work.

For young people, benefits of work span all areas of a healthy life

Beyond this, the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) team has thoroughly reviewed the literature and found that there are nine benefits for work that help teens and young men and women develop a strong work ethic that lays the foundation for success in every area of life:

1. Personal finances: When we think of work, we immediately think of a paycheck. That’s the most obvious benefit. Work enables kids to buy both necessities and luxuries, to pay for education, even to start saving for retirement. Attaching to work early is also important for avoiding the trap of the social safety-net system that can unintentionally keep people mired in poverty.

2. Serving others: Earning money in a free market economy shows the ability to create value by serving others and learning self-reliance.

3. Economic impact: The more people work, the more the economy grows. This creates a more prosperous society and leaves those who work personally better off than those who don’t work. Those who don’t work deny society resources that could have made everyone better off—while simultaneously pulling resources away from other important societal needs.

4. Personal well-being: Work confers dignity and respect. It provides a sense of meaning and purpose in life. In contrast, those who don’t work are, overall, less happy and experience higher levels of personal and familial stress, sadness, despair, hopelessness, apathy, and depression.

5. Mental health: Those who work experience improved mental health outcomes and have higher self-esteem, fewer psychosomatic symptoms, less anxiety, and decreased suicide risk.

6. Alcohol and substance abuse: Those who work generally have reduced drug use and improved treatment outcomes. The impact of substance abuse appears to be greater on those who don’t work.

7. Physical health and lifespan: Those who don’t work generally have poorer physical health, including disrupted sleep patterns, higher risk for cardiovascular disease and respiratory infections, and shorter longevity.

8. Family relationships: Working has a particularly positive impact on males when it comes to family formation. Young men who work are much more likely to marry and have a family.

9. Crime: Working typically has a positive effect on teens and young adults by increasing future wages, building human capital, and reducing criminal behavior and recidivism—especially for economic crimes involving property damage, theft, and drugs.

Taken together, the evidence is strong for teens and young adults to start working on a seasonal or part-time basis. Whether it’s learning to manage a summer job in between camps, family vacation, and other enrichment activities or working during the academic year after school or on the weekends, the benefits of employment go far beyond earning money.

While it may be fashionable for parents to shelter their children from the working world as long as possible to allow them to enjoy a more carefree and leisurely adolescence, the data—and generational wisdom—show that we do kids more harm than good by unduly delaying their exposure to the workforce.

Everything to Know About Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) in Georgia

by Georgia Center for Opportunity | Jun 3, 2024

Education savings accounts in Georgia empower parents to customize their child's education.

Everything to Know About Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) in Georgia

Key Points

Education plays a powerful role in breaking the cycle of poverty and helping children lead healthy, flourishing lives. Education savings accounts in Georgia are a solution to help more kids get the benefits of a quality education.
Georgia’s education savings account program is the Promise Scholarship. Starting in fall 2025, it will give eligible families $6,500 scholarships to access the education option that best meets their child’s needs.
Education savings accounts, or ESAs, in Georgia can have several positive impacts on communities, including better support for public schools, less crime, and greater upward mobility.

Education is an essential building block for a healthy, flourishing life. It has the power to break the cycle of poverty that can persist across generations.

When children from impoverished backgrounds receive a quality education, they’re more likely to escape poverty themselves and provide better opportunities for future generations.

Good education goes hand-in-hand with many other positive outcomes—like better jobs, higher personal income, valuable relationships, better physical health, and a longer life.

We all want these good things for children in our communities. Education savings accounts are one solution that Georgia can use to increase opportunity and prosperity for students who need it most.

What are education savings accounts?

Education savings accounts, also called ESAs, give parents a portion of state education funding that they can use to tailor their child’s education if traditional public school isn’t a good fit.

ESA programs expand education opportunity by giving parents greater flexibility and freedom in education choices. Whether a family prefers homeschooling, private schooling, or other alternatives, ESAs let parents access the best type of education for their child’s unique needs and interests.

The Georgia Promise Scholarship helps students in low-performing public schools access education options for their needs.

Get Started With Georgia’s ESA Program: The Georgia Promise Scholarship

Georgia is getting ready to launch Promise Scholarships in the fall of 2025. If you’re interested in enrolling your child, make sure you’re signed up to hear about next steps.

Get on the List for Updates

How do ESAs work?

To create education savings accounts programs, states must first pass a law. States then take a portion of what they would have spent on the student’s public school education and put it into a state-administered account.

Parents can use these funds for a range of education expenses—tuition, tutoring, homeschooling curriculum, educational therapies, online programs, or even a combination of educational services. States require parents to complete an application process to switch to an ESA.

What do families get from education savings accounts in Georgia?

Flexibility: ESAs let parents customize their kid’s education.
Financial Support: ESAs allow states to expand access to options that families may not be able to afford otherwise.
Empowerment: Parents can take charge of their child’s education journey with confidence.
Diverse Options: Parents can explore various educational paths that suit their child’s needs and interests.

What is Georgia’s ESA program?

Created in 2024, Georgia’s ESA program is the Georgia Promise Scholarship. It provides state-funded scholarship accounts that give eligible families $6,500 per student for each school year.

The program will be available starting in the 2025-2026 school year, and it will be limited to students in the lowest-performing public schools.

Georgia’s Promise Scholarship Explained
Find out what the program is, how it works, and which students will be eligible.

See the Promise Scholarship FAQs

Who do education savings account help in Georgia?

ESAs are for all kinds of students. Whether a child is struggling in school or has special learning needs, ESAs can help. Georgia’s ESA program, the Promise Scholarship, is specifically designed to help families who may not have the resources to access better opportunities.

Students in Underperforming Schools

Thousands of Georgia kids are stuck in public schools that have received a failing grade from the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. To help these kids in particular, the Promise Scholarship will be for students in the bottom 25% of Georgia’s public schools. With an ESA, these students can access higher-quality education options that prepare them for successful careers and fulfilling lives.

Low-Income Students

Choosing a different school or educational path has often been a privilege for wealthier families. What about families that struggle to make ends meet?

With an ESA, low-income families can consider schooling options that may be out of reach otherwise. The Georgia Promise Scholarship makes sure these students are helped first. Available scholarships will go to families below 400% of the federal poverty level (around $120,000/year for a family of four). Any leftover funding can then serve students above that threshold.

Students With Special Needs

ESA programs are a lifeline for students who need support beyond what their local public school can provide. ESAs make it possible to access schools that are set up to help students who have unique learning needs and disabilities. ESA funds can also help pay for other essential resources like tutoring, therapies, and learning technologies.

Homeschooling Families

ESAs don’t just cover school tuition. They can pay for curriculum, online programs, and supplies, giving parents the option to fully customize their child’s education. This flexibility means that ESAs can help families who want to homeschool as an alternative to public or private schools.

What kind of impact could ESAs have on communities in Georgia?

Since Georgia’s ESA program, the Georgia Promise Scholarship, is new, it will be a few years before we know its exact impact on our communities. But we can get an idea from other states that have ESAs, including a couple of Georgia’s neighbors.

Better support for public schools: In 2011, Arizona became the first state to adopt ESAs. The state soon found that the program was helping to redirect state and federal dollars back to public schools where it could be used for teacher pay and operational needs.
Better outcomes for low-income students: Created in 2019, Florida’s ESA program is now the largest in the country. A November 2023 study of Florida’s education system looked at the impact of growing school choice. It found students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds—including those who stayed in public schools—experienced some of the greatest benefits.

Better economic opportunity and healthier societies: Tennessee is still working to expand its ESA program, but a study from the Beacon Center of Tennessee found that a statewide program could have incredible social impact. Their model predicted that Tennessee could have more high school graduates, higher overall personal income, less criminal activity and fewer felons, and $2.9 billion in economic benefits.

Do parents want education savings accounts in Georgia?

Overall, Americans are worried about the direction of public K-12 education.

Half of Americans think it’s moving in the wrong direction.
82% of teachers say the state of public K-12 education has worsened in the last five years.
Only 46% of school parents in Georgia think K-12 education is on the right track in the state of Georgia.

It’s not surprising, then, that Georgia parents are open to more school choice policies: 76% of Georgia school parents say they’re in favor of an ESA program.

A majority of school parents in Georgia think it's a good idea to have education savings accounts in Georgia.

What are common concerns about education savings accounts in Georgia?

Concern: ESAs take funding away from public schools.

Georgia communities don’t have to worry about this because state lawmakers are not using public school funding for the Georgia Promise Scholarship. Promise Scholarship funding is also not allowed to exceed 1% of public school funding. This set-up means public school funding is fully protected.

In general, more research is showing that, when states invest in school choice programs like ESAs, public schools benefit financially and academically. They have more per-pupil funding, less budgetary pressure, and better student outcomes.

Concern: ESAs favor wealthy families and don’t help kids who actually need the opportunity.

Quality education is a building block of a healthy, flourishing life, regardless of a family’s financial situation. ESAs are a tool states can use to ensure there’s more equality when it comes to education opportunities.

Even if an ESA program is universal—where every student is eligible—the students who gain the most opportunities are those most in need. Here in Georgia, our ESA program, the Promise Scholarship, limits eligibility to students in low-income households to make sure they get helped first.

Concern: ESAs are just another private school voucher.

Education savings accounts can be used for private school tuition but also for much more! Unlike private school scholarships, ESAs can be used for a wider range of education expenses—including tuition, tutoring, online programs, education therapies, curriculum, and textbooks.

Concern: ESAs don’t help families in rural areas.

Rural areas may not have as many schools to choose from, but thanks to the flexibility of ESAs, this doesn’t have to be a reason for states to avoid ESA programs.

Take Tanya Schlegel’s story, for example. Tanya is a mom of two kids with special needs living in rural Georgia. Despite her best efforts to work with the local public school, it just isn’t equipped to give special needs students the help they need. An ESA would give her the resources to homeschool and access specialized therapies so that her kids can have the type of education that matches their needs.

Georgia ESAs: Quick Facts

Georgia is one of 16 states with an ESA program.
10 states have universal ESA programs, meaning all students are eligible. Georgia is not yet one of them.
Georgia’s ESAs are worth $6,500 per student per school year.
76% of school parents in Georgia support ESAs.

Interested in Georgia’s ESA program?

Go here to sign up for updates as the Georgia Promise Scholarship gets up and running.

Other Schooling Options in Georgia

BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life: Giving Georgians a Path to Find Purpose and Possibility in Work

by David Bass | May 16, 2024

GCO's BETTER WORK program partners with Jobs for Life to empower people to pursue meaningful work that brings purpose, belonging, and upward mobility.

BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life: Giving Georgians a Path to Find Purpose and Possibility in Work

Key Points

GCO’s BETTER WORK program partners with Jobs for Life to offer community-based job-training classes that help people build the skills, mindset, and confidence to pursue long-term, stable employment.
BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life are a powerful pair because both programs believe that every person has an inherent dignity and value. Together, these programs focus on helping people realize their worth, build purpose-filled lives, and find support and community.
The impact of this partnership shines in the success stories of participants like Quendasia and Tiarra, who found a renewed sense of purpose and vocation through the Jobs for Life class.

Quendasia’s life was changed forever when she was seriously injured in a car crash several years ago. The accident left her with a traumatic brain injury that made returning to work a challenge. She spent five years struggling with unemployment before hearing about the Georgia Center for Opportunity (GCO) BETTER WORK program—and its partnership with Jobs for Life.

Like many job-seekers, Quendasia discovered BETTER WORK in a moment of crisis or urgent need. And because GCO prioritizes building a network of community resources and employer partners, we were able to help her find support for her immediate needs.

But part of what makes BETTER WORK unique—and effective—is that we help people move from crisis into developing connections and a fresh mindset to pursue long-term, stable work. This is where BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life (JFL) came alongside Quendasia to help her envision and pursue a professional path that was so much more than just a paycheck.

This gets to the heartbeat of GCO—to remove barriers to opportunity and foster thriving communities in which everyone can achieve their fullest potential. Work is a key piece of the puzzle—not only because it unlocks economic mobility, but also because it empowers people to find fulfillment in a sense of personal and collective purpose, structured routines, and relationships that lead to belonging and support.

Together, BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life empower people to see that they have a valuable place in their communities and can make unique contributions through work.

Back in 2022, we recognized that the focus of our BETTER WORK initiative strongly aligned with the vision and values of Jobs for Life, a network of job-training groups available through churches and nonprofit organizations that break down barriers to work. Originally launched in 1996 in Raleigh, North Carolina, JFL is now available in more than 300 cities nationwide.

This shared vision led to a collaboration with the power to transform the lives of individuals, families, and whole communities.

In Columbus, which is home to one of our BETTER WORK chapters, we partner with Jobs for Life to offer an 11-week course that pairs participants with a one-on-one mentor. JFL’s curriculum has the benefit of incorporating essential skill training and behavioral development into its model. Each class provides two hours of instruction in soft skills, discussions on the importance of work in daily life, and exercises in character development.

Back to Quendasia’s story.

Prior to coming to Jobs for Life, she had a GED and she was planning to go to college. Through JFL, she honed practical and essential work skills—like how to interact with others and show up on time. These details seem small, but they are often the tools people need most to capably and confidently pursue meaningful work and realize their inherent personal value.

“Jobs for Life got my mind back on track for working. I met different people and learned different skills,” Quendasia shared. “Before Jobs for Life, I didn’t feel confident enough to get a job. I didn’t really believe in myself. But now I know I can do it.”

BETTER WORK's Jobs for Life class connects participants to community resources to support their journey toward meaningful work.

BETTER WORK’s Jobs for Life class in Columbus, GA, introduces participants to community resources and champions that offer support on their journeys to pursuing long-term, meaningful work.

The discovery of personal potential and worth is at the heart of BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life. Both programs share the core belief that everyone has an inherent, God-given dignity worthy of recognition and respect. Through their shared focus on relational support, human connections, and community, BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life empower people to see that they have a valuable place in their communities and can make unique contributions through work.

Today, Quendasia works at Piedmont Healthcare—an opportunity she never would have had without the support and networking she found through JFL.

The BETTER WORK partnership with Jobs for Life allows GCO to leverage our existing network of employers, community leaders, and resource providers to make JFL classes even more successful for the local churches and organizations that choose to host and sponsor the training in a BETTER WORK community.

Take one more example. Recently, Tiarra connected with BETTER WORK through our partnership with the Jobs for Life program. She was looking for new opportunities at a job fair after losing her job.

“The class pushed me even further,” Tiarra said. “I wouldn’t have ever found my mentor or the job I’m in right now. I love all the teachers. Every lesson was a blessing,”

Today, Tiarra is at Troy University online school working toward a bachelor’s degree in social work. “I used to live in fear, and now I embrace challenges and try to work through them instead of shying away from them,” she added.

Across the nation, the need for programs like BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life is significant: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of February 2024, nearly 6.5 million Americans were unemployed, 22 million were underemployed, and 80% of workers were disengaged.

These numbers can seem overwhelming and even impossible to change. But that only becomes true when we forget that the biggest differences start close to home.

When it comes to empowering vibrant communities and upward mobility, the most important place to start is at the community level. That’s what BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life are built for. Quendasia and Tiarra’s stories are testimonies to the good that can come when mission-aligned programs like BETTER WORK and Jobs for Life work together to build hope and opportunities in the places where people need them most—in the communities where everyday lives are lived.

Georgia Passes Promise Scholarships and Expands Education Opportunity

by Buzz Brockway | Apr 23, 2024

Georgia's new education choice program, the Georgia Promise Scholarship, expands education opportunities for kids in low-performing public schools

Georgia Passes Promise Scholarships and Expands Education Opportunity

Key Points

Georgia lawmakers and Gov. Kemp have officially passed Senate Bill 233, which creates a new education option called the Georgia Promise Scholarship program.
Promise Scholarships will help students in low-performing public schools. Eligible students can receive $6,500 scholarships to access different education options that match their needs.
The program is a positive first step toward an education system that works for every Georgia kid. To make an even bigger difference, lawmakers should work toward opening up the program to all Georgia students.

On April 23, 2024, Governor Brian Kemp signed SB 233, the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, into law. This education savings account program—the first of its kind in Georgia—will give parents access to $6,500 state-funded scholarships that they can use to afford the education option best suited to their child’s needs.

The Promise Scholarship Program empowers parents to give their kids quality education and brighter futures

Promise Scholarships will be state-administered, state-funded accounts that give parents $6,500 per year and per student to use for approved education expenses. The program will be available beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.

Parents can use these scholarships for a variety of education costs, including:

Tuition and fees for private schools, online classes, college courses, and vocational programs
Tutoring services
Curriculum and textbooks
Educational therapies
Technology, including adaptive or assistive technologies for students with special needs
Transportation costs

Because of this flexibility, Promise Scholarships allow parents to consider a wide range of options—from homeschooling to private schools to other unique combinations of education services.

“The best gift we can give our next generation is a quality education that opens the doors for new opportunities.” — Randy Hicks, GCO President & CEO

Promise Scholarship eligibility focuses on low- and middle-income students

SB 233 limits Promise Scholarship access to students enrolled in the bottom 25% of Georgia’s public schools, as ranked by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement.

First priority will also be given to students from families below 400% of the federal poverty level—around $120,000 a year for a family of four. Students above that threshold will be allowed to participate if funds are left over after the lower-income students are served.

These parameters—plus the funding cap that SB 233 puts on the program—means that Promise Scholarships will serve an estimated 21,000-22,000 kids out of half a million that are stuck in low-performing public schools.

See all the student eligibility requirements here.

The Georgia Promise Scholarship is an important step for updating our education system

SB 233 is a good step toward giving Georgia families access to high-quality, diverse education options. With more education options, students will have even better opportunities to get an education that’s tailored to their needs and sets them up for success in today’s fast-changing world. But if Georgia is serious about investing in our communities, we must keep working to close the education opportunity gap for all of Georgia’s kids.

By passing SB 233, Georgia is catching up to neighboring states like Alabama, Florida, North Carolina that have already adopted education savings account programs.

While Georgia is starting out with narrow student eligibility, these other states are opting for universal ESA programs, opening access to all students. Georgia will need to be open to this model if we want to give our own students the best possible academic outcomes and opportunities for a flourishing life.

Thank you to Gov. Kemp and the lawmakers who recognized the urgency of the moment and passed Promise Scholarships to strengthen the key building block of education for thousands of kids across the state. It’s a momentous step toward a system where every child has access to quality education and a good life, regardless of income, race, zip code, or other life circumstances.

Learn more about the Georgia Promise Scholarship

The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act (SB 233): Questions and Answers (Georgia Center for Opportunity)

What is the Georgia Promise Scholarship? (Georgia Public Policy Foundation)

The Georgia Promise Scholarship (SB 233): What Private Schools Need to Know (Georgia Center for Opportunity)

Georgia Students Need More Schooling Choices (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Governor’s Signature on School Choice Bill Is Good First Step (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Georgia Governor Signs Bill to Launch ‘Promise Scholarships’ (Washington Examiner)