The Peach State made history this week by opening applications for the new Georgia Promise Scholarship. Launched on March 1, the first application window runs until April 15.
This is Georgia’s first state-funded education savings account for K-12 students, empowering parents with direct control over a portion of state education funding. Families eager to participate can visit MyGeorgiaPromise.org to apply online. The Foundation previously explained the eligibility requirements and how the funds can be used.
The Promise Scholarship was created by lawmakers last year after a hard-fought battle at the Capitol. A similar proposal fell just short in 2023, but legislators persevered and passed the act in 2024. For Georgia families, this is a historic opportunity to seek an education that fits their individual needs.
This moment marks an exciting turning point in education reform for our state. Let’s take a look at how we got here.
The Georgia Promise Scholarship is an outgrowth of the broader idea of school choice, which has deep roots in American education policy, stemming from debates over how best to provide students with a quality education. While public schooling has been the dominant model in the U.S. since the 19th century, dissatisfaction with the one-size-fits-all approach led to alternative education movements as early as the mid-20th century.
One of the earliest and most influential voices in the school choice movement was Milton Friedman. In his essay, The Role of Government in Education, published in 1955, the economist argued that education funding should be separated from education delivery, meaning that instead of funding public schools directly, the government should fund students and allow parents to decide where to send their children. This concept—where funding “follows the student”—became the intellectual foundation for school vouchers and, later, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) like Georgia’s Promise Scholarship.
In the following decades, policymakers experimented with various forms of school choice. Voucher programs, which allow public education funds to be used for private school tuition, were first implemented in Milwaukee in 1990 under Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Charter schools, providing flexible and accountable alternatives to traditional public schools, began expanding rapidly after Minnesota enacted the first charter school law in 1991.
In the early 2000s, the school choice movement began to gain significant traction, as states rolled out exciting initiatives that opened up a world of options for families. Florida became a leader in school choice, implementing vouchers and tax credit scholarships. Other states followed, including Arizona, which, in 2011, pioneered ESAs. This model, which includes the Georgia Promise Scholarship, allows parents to use state funds for a variety of approved educational expenses, from private school tuition to homeschooling materials and therapy services.
Since 2020, the movement has accelerated due to pandemic-era disruptions. Widespread school closures, inconsistent remote learning and concerns over public school curricula led many parents to demand greater control over their children’s education. As a result, in 2023 and 2024, over a dozen states passed new or expanded school choice programs, many of which created or expanded ESA-style programs to be available to all students—a concept known as universal school choice.
Today, school choice is no longer a fringe idea but a mainstream policy priority in many states. The Georgia Promise Scholarship is part of this broader trend, giving thousands of Georgia families an unprecedented level of educational freedom.
Georgia has offered school choice opportunities through charter schools and limited scholarship programs, but never before has our state provided such a flexible option. Potentially hundreds of thousands of students are eligible—however, the program’s funding is initially limited to about 22,000 scholarships (1% of the state’s K-12 budget) and is limited to families whose children are stuck in the lowest performing public schools.
State leaders should applaud this achievement, but also recognize it as only a beginning. If the program shows widespread positive outcomes for families, it will make a persuasive case for broader eligibility and funding in the coming years.
The idea that students should not be trapped in schools that don’t work for them has gone from a bold economic theory to a cornerstone of modern education reform. With the introduction of the Georgia Promise Scholarship, the state joins a growing movement that is reshaping how Americans think about education—one where parents, not bureaucrats, have the power to choose what is best for their children.
This is the kind of innovation that has the power to reshape education in Georgia, and it arrives at a moment when communities are seeking new ways to ensure every student has a fighting chance at success.