04-03-2025
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.'
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