In its inaugural year, the Georgia Promise Scholarship has lived up to its name—offering real promise to thousands of families across the state.
Launched to give students trapped in low-performing public schools access to more customized, high-quality educational experiences, the program is already making a measurable impact.
Between March and June 2025, more than 15,000 families applied for the scholarship. Of those, 8,559 students met eligibility requirements and were approved to receive $6,500 for the 2025–2026 school year. These funds can be used for a broad range of educational expenses, from private school tuition and homeschool support to tutoring, textbooks and therapy services.
The Promise Scholarship puts parents in control. For many families, this program represents the first time they’ve had real choices about their child’s education.
According to preliminary state data, roughly 75% of recipients come from households earning less than 400% of the federal poverty level—a clear sign the program is working as intended to close opportunity gaps. And the student population is demographically diverse: 52% of students are black, 33% are white and 9% are multiracial.
In this week’s commentary, we look at who is using the program, where they are from and how they are using the new scholarship.
Have a great weekend,
– Kyle Wingfield
Friday’s Freshest 🗞️
Georgia’s housing supply isn’t meeting demand
Georgia is adding people faster than it’s adding places for them to live. Our new study, Short Supply: How Many More Homes Does Georgia Need?, finds that 94 of the state’s 159 counties face measurable housing shortages, with the average undersupplied county missing 3,879 units and the median county shortfall standing at 1,014 homes. The most acute deficit appears in Fulton County, where demand now outpaces supply by an estimated 75,152 units.
Trump was right about Coke. But replacing corn syrup with sugar won’t be cheap — or easy.
Atlanta-based Coca‑Cola recently announced it will launch a new soft drink made with cane sugar in the United States this fall, a quiet confirmation of what former President Trump loudly teased on social media days earlier. This marks a flashpoint in a decades-long battle over U.S. food policy; one that’s left our food supply warped by subsidies, protected markets and artificially cheap corn.
Georgia’s push to zero: Can the state eliminate its income tax?
On July 17, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones announced the creation of the Georgia Senate Committee on Eliminating Georgia’s Income Tax. Their task: figuring out how the state moves from our current income tax rate of 5.19% to zero. While Tennessee and Florida have long been held up as the gold standard in the Southeast for their lack of a state income tax, it’s what our other neighbors have been doing lately that has state legislators considering how to aggressively lower Georgia’s income tax rate.
Why Georgia needs regulatory reform
In this year’s legislative session, Georgia had an opportunity to address its ever-growing regulatory code and reduce regulatory burdens placed on its citizens and businesses. Although the “Red Tape Rollback Act” passed the Senate, it ultimately failed to become law in Georgia. Regulatory reform will have another chance next session, and for good reason.
Look for the migration from New York to only grow
Much has been written about America’s largest city edging closer to electing a socialist mayor. But if Zohran Mamdani is indeed successful in implementing his policy ideas, expect one noticeable trend to continue and likely grow: the number of people leaving New York for greener pastures. While we may criticize bad ideas or bad policy, that’s the beauty of the American federalist system. And for years, Georgia has been on the receiving side of migration from New York.
Peach Picks 🍑
While communities across America are trying to lure large corporate data centers, Monroe County rejected a proposal after neighborhood groups opposed it. Commissioners rejected a request to rezone about 900 acres near the town of Bolingbroke to allow a data center.
There is a new trend of public schools investing in marketing and parent outreach to attract students. They’re rebranding, launching ad campaigns, and even hiring outreach coordinators to knock on doors like politicians in a tight race. While some may be alarmed, this is exactly the point. It’s not a bug of school choice. It’s the feature.
Atlanta school officials previewed the district’s plans to close and rezone schools citywide. APS outlines three schools that are overutilized and 42 other schools are underutilized. The district has the capacity to support roughly 70,000 students, but has enrolled roughly 50,000 since 2014.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to put an end to regulators and banks shutting down accounts, also known as debanking, for political reasons. Under the executive order, federal banking regulators will be required to remove reputational risk and equivalent concepts from guidance and examination manuals, and the Small Business Association will require financial institutions to make efforts to reinstate clients and potential clients previously denied services due to an unlawful debanking policy.
Truth in Taxation legislation, first created in Utah in 1985, has proven effective at countering increasing property taxes in an inflationary environment. They combine a property tax levy limit and two mechanisms for expanded transparency for taxpayers.
Off The Vine 🎯
ESPN will acquire NFL Network and other media assets from the National Football League in exchange for the league taking a 10% equity stake in the all-sports network as part of a landmark agreement. NFL Network will be owned and operated by ESPN, which will control the network’s linear and digital rights.
Quotes Of Note 🌟
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine – and shadows will fall behind you.” – Walt Whitman
“When we are called upon to judge, we must do so fairly, without regard to the identity of the parties or our own preferences.” – Clarence Thomas
“Winning never gets old. But doing it the right way—that’s what really matters.” – Bobby Cox