Georgia took a bold step forward last year when it enacted the Promise Scholarship Act, offering educational lifelines of up to $6,500 to students trapped in underperforming schools. Now, as the program launches, our Legislature faces the critical decision of whether it will honor that promise by fully funding a program that thousands of Georgian families are desperate to take advantage of.
The facts speak for themselves. More than 7,400 applications have flooded in during the first 17 days of the program’s launch — and this represents only the first of four application windows planned for 2025. The message from Georgia families couldn’t be clearer: parents desperately want alternatives when their children are zoned for failing schools.
Some legislators suggested that we should underfund the program because it might not reach maximum enrollment in its first year. This is clearly no longer a reasonable position to take. The sky-high initial demand indicates we should be prepared for full utilization or even expansion of the program.
Even so, despite this overwhelming demand, the Georgia House of Representatives has proposed slashing the program’s funding to a mere $46 million — which would not be enough to cover all of the students whose families have already applied. Meanwhile, Gov. Brian Kemp and the Senate support the maximum legally allowed funding of $141 million. While I applaud the governor and Senate’s commitment to past promises, I’d hold that the time has come to begin discussing expanding the program, not just fully funding it.
The scale of this issue makes the House’s proposal to underfund the scholarship all the more disturbing. More than 300,000 Georgia students are eligible for this program because they are zoned to an underperforming school. Even with the maximum allowable funding of $141 million, the state can only provide full scholarships to just more than 21,000 students — that’s about 7.2% of those who are eligible. The House’s meager funding proposal would reduce that number even further, to around 7,000 students total, a mere 2.3% of eligible students.
Is that truly the best Georgia can do for its most educationally vulnerable children? Clearly not, which is exactly why we should be discussing expanding this educational program, not just fully funding it to the maximum extent allowed under the current law.
Contrary to claims that vouchers always harm public education, the Promise Scholarship represents additional educational investment, not diverted revenue. This is new funding dedicated to students who need immediate alternatives, not money that is being taken away from existing classrooms. In fact, when some students leave overcrowded, underperforming schools with vouchers, the remaining students will benefit from smaller class sizes and potentially more resources per pupil, meaning everyone zoned to a failing school will be better off with this program’s expansion.
Moreover, the Promise Scholarship isn’t just another government program; it’s a recognition that one-size-fits-all education doesn’t work for every child. It empowers parents to seek tutoring, alternative educational settings and specialized programs tailored to their children’s needs. It acknowledges that when a school persistently underperforms, families deserve options.
Gov. Kemp and the Senate have shown leadership by supporting full funding at $141 million. They recognize that the Promise Scholarship represents a commitment to Georgia’s families that shouldn’t be abandoned at the first budget negotiation. But we should be thinking bigger.
Educational choice programs like this create a rising tide that can improve all schools. When parents have options, schools must respond to their needs. When students have appropriate learning environments, they thrive. And when we invest in a diverse educational ecosystem rather than a monopolistic system, we’re more likely to discover and scale the approaches that work best for different learners.
As lawmakers work to finalize the budget, they should remember what’s at stake: not just line items in a budget, but the educational futures of children who have already been let down by underperforming schools. These students and families deserve our full support, not half measures.
Georgia made a promise last year. Now it’s time not only to keep it but to consider how we might extend that promise to even more families seeking better educational opportunities for their children.
Nicholas Creel is an associate professor of Business Law at Georgia College & State University. The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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