Latest news with #OfficeofStudentAchievement
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Applications for new Georgia Promise Scholarship now open
ATLANTA - The first application period for the Georgia Promise Scholarship opened this weekend and those leading the new initiative say thousands of families have already applied. What we know "Over the weekend, over 2,000 successfully completed an application on the platform," said Lynne Riley, the president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission. Riley oversees the rollout of the Georgia Promise Scholarship program. The application period began on Saturday and will be open until April 15. The program allows families with students who attend a school that has been identified by the Governor's Office of Student Achievement as "underperforming" to get $6,500 to put towards private school tuition or other alternatives to public school. The agency released a list of around 400 schools that are eligible for the program. Riley says with the funding that's been allotted by the legislature so far, they can accept up to 22,000 students. "The program will prioritize families from lower income levels. When we do a final determination of eligibility, should we have more applicants than there are places available in the program, the first priority goes to low-income families. We're trying to help families that have been put in a situation where they have no choice for the best school for their children, to be able to utilize these funds to find that best choice," she said. The other side Opponents of the program say it's going to do more harm than good. "It's not a scholarship. It is a voucher," said Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators. RELATED: Georgia school voucher program expanded to more students by new agency She says taking funds away from public schools for a minority of students will negatively impact the majority of students still attending the public schools. "We are not providing our students the resources they need to be successful in our public schools. Instead, we want to take a small minority to go to a private school," Morgan said. When asked about taking money away from these public schools, this is what Riley had to say: "It would otherwise be spent on the students at that public school. It's merely taking the money and allowing it to follow the child," Riley said. Dig deeper Morgan says she believes this may even lead to more school closures. "Our concern is that the schools are going to be closing because there is going to be less funding and less resources available for those schools," she said. FOX 5 asked Riley about the possibility of schools closing because of this. "I really don't have an answer to that … we believe that the ability for a child and their family to choose their destiny is going to be the best use of the public dollars available to them," Riley said. Riley says the dollars can also go to help families homeschool their children. "They can invest in technology, curriculum, and materials. They can provide for tutoring services for a child that is homeschooled," she said. But Morgan says they believe that there won't be enough accountability for how those funds are spent. "So it does set up some potential for fraud and abuse within the program," Morgan said. Riley says one way they'll try to curb that is by creating a central place where families can spend those dollars. "That marketplace will have specific selections that have been pre-approved for uses of the Promise Scholarship," Riley said. What's next Some Democratic State Lawmakers have filed a bill to repeal the Promise Scholarship, citing concerns it will "destabilize" Georgia's public school system. "Over 90% of the children in our state attend our public schools. So we believe we should be focused on solutions to provide the resources, the funding necessary for all our students who are attending our public schools," Morgan said. But she said those efforts don't seem to be gaining enough traction. "There have been multiple bills filed to repeal this system. We don't think that they are going to move forward," Morgan said. Riley says regardless of any efforts to repeal it, the strong start to the application period is a good sign. "We are fully invested in the delivery of this program, and we're excited at the initial appetite. We anticipate that it's only going to grow, and we will be optimistically enrolling just under 22,000 students in July," Riley said. What you can do If you want to see if your child may be eligible for the voucher program, Riley says you can visit and use the pre-screening tool to see if you qualify. The Source Information for this story was provided by the Georgia Student Finance Commission, the Georgia Association of Educators, and from previous FOX 5 reports.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What Senate Bill 233 and the Georgia Promise Act means for those in Richmond County
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Applications are now open for the Georgia Promise Scholarship which helps families of students at underperforming schools afford private school tuition or home school. This gives eligible families $6,500 for private school tuition or home school expenses. 'The money goes to the parent to use it for whatever purpose they want to use it as it relates to that child's education,' State Rep. Karlton Howard said. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement released a list last month of public schools that qualify for new vouchers — which were created by the State Legislature last year. 'It passed last year; it was designed to help 21,000 students in Georgia. But there was some semantics in the language that were challenged in court, and as it turns out, now there are 400,000 students that qualify for the same funds,' Rep. Howard said. Those students are from schools that are in the lowest 25th percentile– calculated by the College and Career Ready Performance Index individual scores from previous school years. And it includes dozens of Richmond County Schools. 'Of the state average scores, then that school qualifies– any student at that school qualifies for the $6,500 dollar scholarship. But they're– again like I said– but the issue became, now if there is only one school in the school system that is a failing school in the lower 25 percentile, the whole system qualifies,' Rep. Howard said. He also says he believes this could make it hard for public schools– especially some in Richmond County. 'That QBE Formula has not been addressed or modified in over 40 years– about 40 years. Which means schools are not being funded properly, first of all, and if they're properly funded, I think we can do better. Teachers need more pay, there need to be more facilities up to date, they need to have more security. And there's a lot more they can do if they had more funding.' If your student attends one of the schools on the list – you can submit an application for the Georgia Promise Scholarship by the April deadline. To find out if your student is eligible just visit. If you would like to learn more about Senate Bill 233: Georgia Promise Scholarship Public School List Calculation To view the list of eligible schools visit: Georgia Promise Scholarship Public School For further information visit: Georgia Promise Scholarship Public School List Richmond County School System Interim Superintendent Dr. Malinda Cobb says, Monday, in a statement: 'We strongly believe that our schools have outstanding educators and students who have grown greatly over the past few years. We've achieved historic increases in our graduation rate, had several schools exit federal improvement lists, and released information about CCRPI that shows widespread improvement across elementary, middle, and high schools for all measured components in career and college readiness for the third year in a row. We've made great strides and understand that we have more progress to make in closing gaps.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Georgia voucher program could cover biological children of families that take in foster children
The Georgia Senate approved a bill that would expand the state's voucher program to include biological and adopted children of foster parents. Getty Images Senate Republicans passed a bill they say will help encourage residents to take in foster children by giving foster parents priority access to the state's school voucher program for their biological and adopted children. Democrats, who largely opposed the voucher plan when it passed last year, criticized the plan for not benefiting foster children themselves and said it could invite fraud, waste and abuse. Under Georgia's voucher system, officially called the Promise Scholarship, parents can apply for $6,500 for academic expenses, including private school, if they pull their kids out of public school. Participating families must have an income level below four times the national poverty level and be districted into the bottom quartile of public schools in Georgia. Public education advocates argue that vouchers take money from public schools that need it and send it to private schools, which are not subject to government scrutiny. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement keeps a list of eligible schools, and applications are set to begin on Saturday. If Senate Bill 152 by Cumming Republican Greg Dolezal becomes law, foster parents will not need to meet those requirements to be eligible. Democrats said it does not look proper that the bill would not apply to foster children themselves. Instead, the benefit would apply to any biological or adopted children of foster parents. 'As we all know, typically foster children feel ostracized,' said Atlanta Democratic Sen. RaShaun Kemp. 'They come into a household where there are already relationships developed where they may feel a little jealousy in terms of the environment in which they're in. And now we're telling them to come into this house, the children of the parents can go to the private school that's down the street, to the school that they have deemed to be the better school for their children. But we're telling the foster children, no, you have to go to the school that I have found to be ineffective for my own kids. This is wrong.' Dolezal said the bill's goal is to encourage more people to take in foster children. He said including foster kids did not make sense for this bill but added that he plans to look into the idea. 'We went through a number of steps to try to work this bill in its current form to include the foster families, but everything in the bill and in the Georgia Promise Scholarship program is executed and managed by parents, the biological parents or the adopted parents of children,' he said. 'And so we are going to work in the off session to do the work that needs to be done to have that included. I believe there may be a study committee.' Dolezal sparred with Atlanta Democratic Sen. Elena Parent, who said the voucher expansion could be rife for abuse. 'Are you aware that in Florida families have used this taxpayer money for annual passes to Disney World and Universal Studios?' Parent asked. 'I can tell you I am familiar that Florida's program was so successful that it was originally implemented under Governor (Jeb) Bush that just a couple of years ago Governor (Ron) DeSantis and the Florida legislature expanded it from its limited use to be a universal program in Florida, and they have appropriated about 10 times as much funding as we have to our current program,' Dolezal said. Parent said said families in other states have taken advantage of voucher programs to buy things like electronics, video game consoles and sporting equipment. 'Senator, it sounds like we might need Elon Musk to go down to Florida and look into what they're doing down there,' Dolezal said. 'I know that Governor DeSantis has implemented a DOGE Florida bill, and I would probably say that in all areas of government, we can find examples of misappropriation of funds, and I would link arms with you in finding ways to find those.' Under the bill, families could remain eligible up to 10 years after they care for a foster child. And once a child is in the program, they remain in it until they decide to reenroll in public school. Parent implied that could lead to significant fraud. 'Would you agree with me that the language in today's bill, the way it's written, does say that a family could have a foster child for a day, then say, 'you know, it didn't work out,' and then receive the taxpayer-funded voucher for the next 15 years?' 'Senator, I think we could imagine edge cases in which that would be the case, but I know that the 2,300 families who are currently fostering in the state of Georgia are not doing it for their daily stipend that they currently get paid, but they are doing it for love of the children and for a desire to see some of the most vulnerable children in our state be taken care of,' Dolezal said. The bill will next head to the House, where it will need to pass out of committee and the full chamber before the end of the session, April 4. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
The Independent
18-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Georgia school voucher list makes more than 400,000 students eligible
Two months of recalculating made little difference in a list of Georgia 's lowest performing schools, meaning more than 400,000 students will have a chance to apply for $6,500 vouchers to pay for private school tuition or home-schooling expenses. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement released the new list on Friday, after releasing and then removing two previous lists in December. The new list made only a handful of additions and deletions. Students zoned for the lowest performing 25% of schools under Georgia's academic rating system are eligible to apply for what the law calls 'promise scholarships.' The Georgia Education Savings Authority, a body created by the law, interpreted the measure to say any students in such a school's attendance zone are eligible, even if they don't attend that school. For example, if a middle school is on the list, elementary and high school students who live in that zone can also apply. An Associated Press analysis finds every student in 65 of Georgia's 180 traditional school districts are eligible to apply, including every student in Augusta 's Richmond County and in Macon's Bibb County districts. Most of the districts where all students are eligible are small and rural, though. A majority of students in the DeKalb County, Clayton County and Atlanta districts will also be able to apply, the AP finds. The list was released just before the first application period of March 1 to April 15. The authority plans additional application periods during June and September. However, application deadlines for many private schools for the 2025-2026 academic year have already passed. Students could be admitted if they applied before they were certain of eligibility, or if schools allow late applications. The law capped spending at 1% of the funding formula for public schools, or $141 million. That could provide more than 22,000 vouchers. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp recommended spending that much, but lawmakers haven't yet decided on the amount. The law requires that Georgia fully fund its public schools before any money is allotted to vouchers. The money for vouchers is appropriated separately, on top of public school funding. Georgia has 1.75 million public school students. Broad eligibility means applications could far exceed the spending limit, creating pressure to raise it. Already, Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has endorsed a proposal to make all foster children eligible. Voucher programs are ballooning nationwide. Many supporters want all students to be eligible, regardless of school performance or family income. States that have adopted such universal vouchers, such as Arizona, Florida, Iowa and Ohio, reported more applications than expected, causing costs to bulge. Georgia's law is more limited. Only children zoned for a low-performing school who have been enrolled for two semesters or who are incoming kindergartners can apply. If more students apply than there are vouchers available, students from households with incomes of less than four times the federal poverty level are prioritized. That's about $100,000 for a family of three. If there are still too many applications, a random statewide drawing decides who gets the money. The money can be spent on private school tuition, textbooks, transportation, home-schooling supplies, therapy, tutoring or early college courses for high school students. The House approved the program with no votes to spare this spring after seven rural Republicans and a Democrat flipped under pressure from Gov. Brian Kemp, House Speaker Jon Burns of Newington and other Republicans. The list had to be reworked twice after officials determined they would exclude some schools, including charter schools and alternative schools.
Associated Press
18-02-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Georgia school voucher list makes more than 400,000 students eligible
ATLANTA (AP) — Two months of recalculating made little difference in a list of Georgia's lowest performing schools, meaning more than 400,000 students will have a chance to apply for $6,500 vouchers to pay for private school tuition or home-schooling expenses. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement released the new list on Friday, after releasing and then removing two previous lists in December. The new list made only a handful of additions and deletions. Students zoned for the lowest performing 25% of schools under Georgia's academic rating system are eligible to apply for what the law calls 'promise scholarships.' The Georgia Education Savings Authority, a body created by the law, interpreted the measure to say any students in such a school's attendance zone are eligible, even if they don't attend that school. For example, if a middle school is on the list, elementary and high school students who live in that zone can also apply. An Associated Press analysis finds every student in 65 of Georgia's 180 traditional school districts are eligible to apply, including every student in Augusta's Richmond County and in Macon's Bibb County districts. Most of the districts where all students are eligible are small and rural, though. A majority of students in the DeKalb County, Clayton County and Atlanta districts will also be able to apply, the AP finds. The list was released just before the first application period of March 1 to April 15. The authority plans additional application periods during June and September. However, application deadlines for many private schools for the 2025-2026 academic year have already passed. Students could be admitted if they applied before they were certain of eligibility, or if schools allow late applications. The law capped spending at 1% of the funding formula for public schools, or $141 million. That could provide more than 22,000 vouchers. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp recommended spending that much, but lawmakers haven't yet decided on the amount. The law requires that Georgia fully fund its public schools before any money is allotted to vouchers. The money for vouchers is appropriated separately, on top of public school funding. Georgia has 1.75 million public school students. Broad eligibility means applications could far exceed the spending limit, creating pressure to raise it. Already, Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has endorsed a proposal to make all foster children eligible. Voucher programs are ballooning nationwide. Many supporters want all students to be eligible, regardless of school performance or family income. States that have adopted such universal vouchers, such as Arizona, Florida, Iowa and Ohio, reported more applications than expected, causing costs to bulge. Georgia's law is more limited. Only children zoned for a low-performing school who have been enrolled for two semesters or who are incoming kindergartners can apply. If more students apply than there are vouchers available, students from households with incomes of less than four times the federal poverty level are prioritized. That's about $100,000 for a family of three. If there are still too many applications, a random statewide drawing decides who gets the money. The money can be spent on private school tuition, textbooks, transportation, home-schooling supplies, therapy, tutoring or early college courses for high school students.
