Seven schools in the Clarke County School District will qualify for the new Georgia Promise Scholarship Program. The scholarship program is provided to elementary, middle, and high schools throughout the state that fell within the lowest percentile of Georgia schools based on their average performance during the last two school years, using the College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) for calculations.
On Nov. 18, the recently created Georgia Education Savings Authority (GESA) adopted rules and regulations for the program, which gives “eligible K-12 students in lower performing [public] schools up to $6,500 in funding for private school tuition, tutoring services, and other qualified education expenses through an education savings account.”
GESA and the Promise Scholarship were created in early 2024 when state legislators passed Senate Bill 233, the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act. GESA is described as “a companion entity to the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC),” which has been managing state and lottery funded scholarship programs since 1965 when it was first known as the State Scholarship Commission.
An updated list was released on Wednesday, after legislators “became aware of outliers in the CCRPI calculation that impacted the calculations for the Promise Act list of schools.” The previous list was published on Nov. 27.
The Promise Schools Calculation Guide details the calculations method used by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement to determine the list of schools.
The state is offering the scholarship program to schools that fall within the lowest performing 25% of schools based on student achievement related to the average of schools’ CCRPI numbers from 2022-23 and 2023-24. The calculation of eligible schools included but were not limited to exclusions such as charter schools, schools with only pre-K through second grade students as well as state schools for the blind and deaf.
The annual $6,500 paid out to families can go toward the following:
GESA stated in its Nov. 18 press release that “up to 50% of unused funds in an academic year may carry forward to the following academic year.”
The Promise Scholarship is not available wholesale to Georgia families at this time. Here are the following parameters
Nov. 18’s adoption of the rules and regulations and subsequent press release by the GESA stated the following regarding the timeline:
Families can review guideline and private school handbooks at mygeorgiapromise.org. They can also direct questions to Promise.Scholarship@gsfc.org.
Melissa Cruz is an elections reporting fellow who focuses on voter access issues for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at mcruz@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, at @MelissaWrites22.
Joseph Schwartzburt, education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News, contributed to this reporting.
