For over a decade, the push for educational freedom was spearheaded at the state level by advocates and policy makers. The landscape of the school choice movement will change significantly in January 2027, when the first federal tax credit scholarship goes into effect.
That tax credit was a provision within the FY2025 reconciliation process, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law this summer. It will allow individuals to make cash contributions of up to $1,700, and potentially $3,400 for married couples, to qualified nonprofit scholarship-granting organizations (known as Student Scholarship Organizations, or SSOs, in Georgia). Donors receive a dollar-for-dollar tax credit.
SSOs will use these contributions to grant scholarships to students for use on qualified expenses. Students in families with income below 300% of their area median income are eligible, and funds can be used on a broad variety of K-12 expenses such as tuition, fees, supplies, transportation, special needs services and other expenses tied to enrollment at public, private and religious schools.
This obviously marks a significant expansion of educational freedom. While states are required to opt into the program, meaning families in some states that do not have robust school choice programs will likely be unable to benefit, there is still plenty of opportunity for improved access to quality education.
Learn more about this in this week’s commentary.
– Kyle Wingfield
Friday’s Freshest 🗞️
Washington is currently focused on whether to extend COVID-era Obamacare subsidy add-ons. Democrats demanded these supposedly temporary subsidies be extended, leading to the recent government shutdown.
The 50-year mortgage idea recently floated by the Trump administration grows out of the same motivation of the 30-year mortgage of the 1930s—to make home ownership more accessible to people who would otherwise be renters.But today, the main barrier is not how we finance homes—it’s that we don’t build enough of them.
If you’ve followed the conversation even casually, you’ve heard the claim: Large institutional investors are buying up homes, driving prices sky-high and locking families out of the market. But like most stories that sound that simple, this one has more layers. And it’s worth separating the easy headlines from what’s actually happening on the ground.
Here is a simple proposition: If a Georgia public school has an open seat, any Georgia student should be able to take it. This idea isn’t fringe or partisan and shouldn’t require a superintendent’s blessing.
Public schools served 1.2 million fewer students in 2022-23 than they did in the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic. Those same schools are projected to lose an additional 2.4 million students, or 4.9% of their enrollment, by 2031.
Peach Picks 🍑
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday announced it would send $350 million in funding to localities and electric cooperatives for relief efforts following Hurricane Helene and Tropical Storm Debby. The announcement comes two months after Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia released a report that nearly $500 million in Hurricane Helene disaster relief was unpaid.
A $100 bill in Georgia will go further than the same amount in other states, according to an analysis from the Tax Foundation. The report compared the purchasing power of $100 in the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas of the 50 states based on 2023 data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis defended her criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in front of Georgia lawmakers Wednesday. Willis, appearing before a GOP-led state Senate special committee, defended her decision to bring charges against Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators following Trump’s Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to win the state.
National economic headwinds driven in part by politics will continue suppressing Georgia’s economy while raising the risk of recession, says a new economic forecast from a business think tank at the University of Georgia. The 43rd annual prediction by the Selig Center for Economic Growth rates the risk of a recession in Georgia at pretty much a coin toss.
Quotes Of Note 🌟
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu
“Whatever you are, be a good one.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” – Mark Twain
One More Fact 💡
School transportation is changing — and that matters for student access and policy.
A recent Reason article highlights that fewer students today ride traditional yellow school buses than in past decades, even as costs and distances rise. Between 1980–81 and 2018–19, the share of students transported at public expense dropped significantly, and the inflation-adjusted cost per student nearly doubled. This trend—driven by factors like urban sprawl, changing family transportation choices, and bus driver shortages—has left some districts cutting routes and students missing school.
The Foundation published a study on this issue last year, finding that transportation access is critical for educational opportunity — and that the current system makes it harder for many students, particularly those attending charter schools or from low-income families, to access schooling.
Giving districts more flexibility to use alternative vehicles and streamline transportation regulations could help more students get to school reliably and reduce costs.