Georgia’s budget would spend on school vouchers and poor students. Here’s a look by the numbers
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia will spend more state money on private school vouchers and poor students in traditional schools under a budget that lawmakers agreed to on Friday.
House Bill 68 outlines the spending of $37.8 billion in state funds and $67.2 billion overall, once federal and other funds are included for the year beginning July 1. The Senate voted 54-1 to approve the budget, while the House voted 170-5.
The budget pumps more money into Georgia’s troubled prison system. It funds the first year of operation of a private school and homeschooling voucher system at the same time it would spend extra money on the education of students in poverty for the first time.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday allowed lawmakers to spend an extra $50 million in state funds, saying he wanted it spent on a foster care program and a new science building at the University of North Georgia. Kemp sets the ceiling for how much state money can be spent.
Here’s a by-the-numbers look:
$141 million
Georgia will budget the maximum amount allowed by law, $141 million, on a new voucher program for private schools and home schooling. At $6,500 per voucher, the amount would provide enough for more than 21,000 vouchers, although it is not clear demand will be that high in the first year. The House had proposed spending $46 million, which would have provided only about 7,000 slots.
House members have complained that the Georgia Education Savings Authority, the group created to administer the program, interpreted the law to make many more students eligible than many lawmakers had expected.
The program is midway through its first application period, which runs until April 15. There are two more application periods set for the summer and fall. It is unclear how many applications will be approved.
$15.3 million
Georgia for the first time would provide extra money to schools that educate large numbers of poor students.
“It’s a one-time pilot. We’re going to watch this,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Blake Tillery, a Vidalia Republican, of the $15.3 million that lawmakers agreed to. That is down from the $28 million the House initially proposed.
Georgia’s 40-year-old K-12 school funding system provides extra money to school districts with low property wealth that can’t collect much in property taxes. But Georgia is one of five states that doesn’t spend extra money directly on poor students.
About 36% of Georgia’s public school students — 625,000 of the state’s 1.75 million students — come from impoverished households, according to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. Those who study the subject suggest schools need to spend at least $1,000 extra per student to begin seeing results. That would be $625 million statewide.
$250
Parents could cut their state income taxes by up to $250 for each child they have who is younger than 6 years old beginning in 2026 under House Bill 36, which won final passage Friday.
The measure would also increase how much parents can get back from Georgia’s existing child care tax credit. Right now, taxpayers can get back an amount equal to 30% of the separate federal income tax credit for child care expenses. The federal ceiling is $3,000 per child, which means Georgia’s ceiling is $900 per child. The plan would increase that to $1,500, or 50% of the federal ceiling.
Finally, the bill creates a new subsidy for employers to help pay for child care expenses. If an employer pays for at least $1,000 in child care costs per employee, it could claim a $1,000 per employee credit from its state income taxes in the first year and $500 in following years.
$0
Georgia will borrow no money for construction projects for the third year in a row. Instead the state will spend a total of $715 million out of current revenue, avoiding borrowing. The House had proposed borrowing more than $300 million to free up cash to spend in other areas. But senators and Gov. Brian Kemp both opposed selling bonds, citing the $11 billion in unallocated cash that Georgia started the year with, as well as the relatively high interest rates the state would pay if it issued new debt. row.
$10 million
The state will budget $10 million extra to the state Employees Retirement System, which provides pensions for state employees who aren’t teachers. That should be enough to provide one-time bonus payments of around $200 per retiree.
Lawmakers have been trying to shore up the pension fund so that it will be financially healthy enough to resume long-paused cost-of-living increases without extra help from the state budget. But they allocated less for the bonus payments that originally proposed.
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