GBPI In The News With Georgia classrooms closed for the school year, digital divide emerges April 6, 2020 / June 23, 2020 by Alex Welch Camden County Schools closed March 17, but it wasn’t until April 1 that substitute teacher Bern Johnson’s third-grade granddaughter got her hands on a laptop to do her schoolwork. […]Gov. Brian Kemp announced last week that Georgia’s public schools will be closed through the school year, but Georgia students have been studying from home for […] Read more » COVID-19 K-12 rural broadband Stephen Owens
Bill Analysis K-12 Education Stephen Owens Potential Voucher Expansion Leaves Students and Parents at a Loss February 28, 2020 / April 28, 2020 by Stephen Owens Bill Analysis: Senate Bill 386 (LC 49 0125) Established in 2007, the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship (GSNS) is a voucher that allows parents of students with disabilities to pay for private education programs using money previously allocated for public schooling. The voucher is available to students with an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) who have attended […] Read more » 504 plans Education K-12 vouchers
Fact Sheets K-12 Education Learning the Basics Stephen Owens Video What Are School Vouchers? February 12, 2020 / October 13, 2026 by Stephen Owens Download PDF Vouchers Overview Georgia legislators have debated educational vouchers since the 1950s.[1] A school voucher is an amount of money provided by the state government to parents for use for private educational programs, such as tuition at private schools. There are two basic ways the state can finance school vouchers. Tax-credit vouchers Taxpayers can […] Read more » Education K-12 school vouchers vouchers
K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens Overview: Georgia’s 2021 Fiscal Year Budget for K-12 Education January 28, 2020 / October 13, 2026 by Stephen Owens Download PDF Governor Kemp’s budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2021 provides Georgia’s public schools $10.9 billion, a $272 million increase above current funding. The largest single addition provides funding for pay raises for teachers and some non-certified school personnel that make less than $40,000 per year. Costs tied to student enrollment growth make up the bulk of the remaining additional dollars. Although Georgia’s mechanism for financing public […] Read more » Budget Education K-12 QBE Quality Basic Education
Bill Analysis Higher Education Jennifer Lee K-12 Education Reports Dual Enrollment Restrictions Designed to Limit Cost Growth January 20, 2020 / October 13, 2026 by Jennifer Lee Download PDF Bill Analysis: House Bill 444 (LC 49 0063S) Dual Enrollment acts as a crucial onramp to college for more than 50,000 Georgia students. As Dual Enrollment is set up in Georgia, the state pays colleges fixed amounts for tuition, mandatory fees and books so that high school students can take college courses without […] Read more » Bill Analysis Dual Enrollment Education Higher Education K-12
Blog K-12 Education Stephen Owens Reject Policies that Make Education Less Fair Across Georgia January 16, 2020 / April 28, 2020 by Stephen Owens Last fall we published a report exploring the connection between Georgia’s legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and its impact on the educational opportunities and resources for students living in the state’s “Black Belt.” The Black Belt refers to a region of the state where slave labor was concentrated. Since 1865, Jim Crow segregation and […] Read more » Charter Schools Education Education Savings Account Georgia K-12 testing TRS vouchers
K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens State of Education Funding in Georgia (2020) January 9, 2020 / October 13, 2026 by Stephen Owens Download PDF Georgia’s public schools are funded through a law passed in 1985 called the Quality Basic Education Act, or QBE. This report offers an assessment of the state of education funding in Georgia by analyzing how it compares to prior years and other states and exploring what areas are due for review or revision. […] Read more » Education K-12 QBE Quality Basic Education
K-12 Education Stephen Owens Georgia’s K-12 Equalization Grants Explained August 29, 2019 / March 23, 2021 by Stephen Owens The state of Georgia has a constitutional obligation to provide every child with an “adequate public education.”[1] Over the past 50 years, almost every state’s funding laws have been created or changed in response to lawsuits alleging that schools are either not funded enough (adequacy challenges) or not funded fairly (equity challenges). Georgia lawmakers enacted […] Read more » Education equalization equalization grants K-12
Blog K-12 Education Fairer Funding, Fairer Schools August 20, 2019 / January 4, 2021 by Lamees Aisami Adjusting the School Funding Formula for a More Equitable Learning Environment A new report from the Education Law Center (ELC), a research organization that advocates for fair education funding across the U.S., highlights the need for updates to how Georgia supports our most disadvantaged students. Additional Funding for Low-Income Students in Other States Kentucky adds […] Read more » Education K-12 Quality Basic Education
Budget Primer Higher Education Jennifer Lee K-12 Education Reports Stephen Owens Georgia Education Budget Primer for State Fiscal Year 2020 July 1, 2019 / April 14, 2020 by Stephen Owens You can download and share all the images and charts in the Education Primer by clicking here. This section begins with K-12 education. Click here to jump to higher education. Georgia lawmakers committed $707 million more to the state’s K-12 public education system in the 2020 budget than the prior year, for a total of […] Read more » Dual Enrollment Education Georgia Budget Primer Higher Education HOPE Scholarship K-12
