As several thousand Georgia families apply for the first round of a new scholarship, state lawmakers are at odds over how much money to put in the program.
The House of Representatives has proposed spending about $46 million for the Promise Scholarship, which gives vouchers to students zoned for low-performing public schools.
But that’s not enough money to give a full scholarship to every student who has already applied, let alone the hundreds of thousands who are eligible for the program. And it’s less than Gov. Brian Kemp and state senators want to spend.
Signed into law last year, the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act allows children who live in the attendance zone of a public school performing in the bottom 25% on state measures to apply for scholarships of up to $6,500 a year to use on education expenses, like private school tuition and tutoring.
The Georgia Student Finance Commission reported to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution receiving more than 7,400 applications in the first 17 days of the application being open, which began March 1. If each of those applicants receive the full $6,500 allowed, that would cost more than $48 million — and more than the amount the House set for the entire year.
The AJC conducted an analysis in December that found more than 300,000 students would be eligible to apply for the voucher. But funding for the scholarship is capped by law at 1% of the public education budget in Georgia. That’s about $141 million this year — the amount the governor recommended in the budget —or enough to provide scholarships to more than 21,000 students.
The House’s budget suggests spending only about one-third of the governor’s proposal in the 2025-2026 fiscal year, in favor of using the money elsewhere in a year when “things are tight,” said Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, the House Appropriations Committee chairman.
“The governor’s recommendation funded the maximum amount of the scholarship authorized — a number that experience from other states and our own programs … tell us we will likely not realize in the first year,” Hatchett said before the House voted on the budget.
The application will remain open until April 15. There will be three more application windows in 2025.
The Senate is “committed to returning funding to a level the maximum number of Georgia families may benefit,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, told the AJC.
Lawmakers will have to come to an agreement on a number for the final budget by the end of the legislative session April 3.
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