This year’s Georgia legislative session is about to enter its final week, and as in every year, education policy has been a key issue.
The legislature continues to debate school choice and scholarship policy, building on the creation of the Promise Scholarship in 2024, and refining that program figures to be an annual endeavor for years to come. While much of this session’s education agenda should be ideologically familiar, it was also broad, with other efforts including improving literacy, bolstering charter schools and adjusting curriculum.
This year’s changes to the Promise Scholarship involved a cleanup bill: Senate Bill 445. It was sponsored by Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), who also sponsored the Promise Scholarship Act. The bill excludes public schools with statewide attendance zones (such as virtual schools) and certain charter schools from the list of public schools the Office of Student Achievement publishes each year for Promise Scholarship purposes. This matters because the Promise Scholarship program depends on which public schools count toward eligibility; a definitional problem like this can affect who is considered eligible.
SB 445 passed the Senate on March 6, and is currently in the House Education Committee.
Lawmakers are aiming for more equitable funding with the establishment of the Georgia Charter School Facilities Authority as a way to address one of charter schools’ most persistent practical disadvantages: paying for buildings in which to operate. Charter schools are public schools, but they often lack the same access to local capital funding that traditional district schools do.
Senate Bill 498, sponsored by Sen. Clint Dixon (R-Gwinnett), would create a new financing vehicle designed to help charter schools obtain revolving loan funds and other public financing assistance for construction, renovation and repair projects. It also authorizes the Georgia State Financing and Investment Commission to issue general obligation bonds for charter-school facilities, which is a sign that lawmakers are trying to treat facilities access as a structural barrier rather than a one-off budget problem.
SB 498 passed the Senate on March 6 and passed the House Appropriations Committee on March 24.
Another school choice issue is Georgia’s effort to expand and refine its student scholarship organization (SSO) program. Sponsored by Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton), House Bill 328 would raise the annual aggregate cap on available tax credits for contributions to SSOs from $120 million to $225 million. House Bill 1220, sponsored by Rep. Bethany Ballard (R-Warner Robins), would broaden eligibility for certain students, including military families and students with disabilities. Together, the bills reflect an effort to make the program both larger and more accessible. HB 328 passed the House on March 6, and HB 1220 passed on March 4.
Lawmakers have also spent part of the session preparing Georgia to participate in a new federal scholarship tax-credit program set to begin in 2027. Under that program, individuals could receive a federal income tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to approved scholarship-granting organizations, but only if a state opts in and designates eligible organizations. Georgia has already been listed by the IRS as a participating state for 2027, and Senate Bill 446 (also sponsored by Sen. Clint Dixon and carried by Rep. Scott Hilton) would codify and administer that participation. In practical terms, the measure would not replace Georgia’s existing SSO program so much as add a new federal incentive on top of it, potentially expanding the role scholarship organizations play in the state’s broader school-choice landscape.
While many of these bills are related to larger efforts to expand access to education, there’s plenty going on within the classroom as well. Georgia lawmakers have begun to focus more heavily on literacy, especially in the early grades. Part of this push includes the Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026, designated House Bill 1193.
This effort, introduced by Rep. Chris Erwin (R-Homer), includes expanded use of literacy coaches, stronger state direction around early reading instruction and early identification of children struggling to read. In some respects, HB 1193 resembles the kind of state-led literacy strategy seen in other states that have improved their early literacy metrics, such as Mississippi’s emphasis on literacy coaches and phonics-based language instruction. HB 1193 passed the House on February 24, and it had a hearing in the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday.
That isn’t the only classroom-related bill. Lawmakers are also looking to expand last year’s “Distraction-Free Education Act,” which banned students’ use of cell phones in class in K-8, into high school. This is House Bill 1009, sponsored by Rep. Scott Hilton (R-Peachtree Corners), and it was passed by the Senate March 23. Another classroom bill is Sen. Jason T. Dickerson’s (R-Canton) Senate Bill 513, the “Every Day Counts Act.” This would tighten Georgia’s response to chronic absenteeism by defining when repeated unexcused absences trigger formal intervention plans and by attaching stronger consequences for students who continue to miss school.
Whether it be expanding access and choice for Georgia students or improving outcomes in the classroom, each legislative session brings challenges both new and familiar. As we approach the end of the session, we are gaining a clearer view of lawmakers’ priorities and the future of education in the state.