Public money for private tuition? New GA law lets students at these Columbus schools apply
Among the 513 Georgia public schools ranked in the state’s bottom 25% for performance, 26 are in Columbus.
And that means, due to a new state law, students in those schools are eligible to apply each school year for the Georgia Promise Scholarship, a $6,500 voucher for an education savings account to use public money for private school tuition, fees, tutoring and other qualified expenses in grades K-12.
Nearly half of Muscogee County’s 56 schools are on the list:
- Arnold Middle School
- Baker Middle School
- Brewer Elementary School
- Carver High School
- Davis Elementary School
- Dawson Elementary School
- Dorothy Height Elementary School
- Double Churches Middle School
- East Columbus Magnet Academy
- Eddy Middle School
- Forrest Road Elementary School
- Fort Middle School
- Fox Elementary School
- Gentian Elementary School
- Georgetown Elementary School
- Hardaway High School
- Jordan Vocational High School
- Kendrick High School
- Key Elementary School
- Lonnie Jackson Academy
- Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School
- Rigdon Road Elementary School
- Rothschild Leadership Academy
- Spencer High School
- St. Marys Road Elementary School
- Waddell Elementary School
Chattahoochee County High School also is on the list.
What is the Georgia Promise Scholarship, how to apply?
The Georgia Promise Scholarship is an education savings account open to students who reside in the attendance zone of a Georgia public school ranked in the lowest-performing 25% and who have been enrolled in a Georgia public school for two consecutive full-time attendance counts (typically one academic year) or are a rising kindergarten student. They also must have a parent who has resided in Georgia for at least one year, with exceptions for active-duty military.
The scholarship also may be used for textbooks and supplemental materials, services from a physician or licensed therapist for occupational, behavioral, physical or speech-language therapies, curriculum and transportation to a service provider (up to $500 per year). As much as half of the unused money in a Georgia Promise Scholarship recipient’s account may carry forward to the following academic year.
Eligible families may start applying for the scholarship at MyGeorgiaPromise.org in “early spring 2025” to begin using it in time for the fall 2025 semester, Mike Seabaugh, the program’s senior vice president, said in a news release from the Georgia Student Finance Commission. The dates for the application period are expected to be announced this month.
The total amount of money available for the scholarships cannot exceed 1% of the state’s funding for public schools. So the program is estimated to be able to serve 21,000-22,000 students each year.
Eligible students from families with incomes below 400% of the federal poverty level, equating to about $120,000 per year, will be in the first group to receive these scholarships.
“Once a student is approved to participate in the Georgia Promise Scholarship program, they will not lose eligibility if the school they are zoned to attend improves in performance,” Georgia Student Finance Commission external affairs director Hayley Corbitt told the Ledger-Enquirer.
The $6,500 was selected as the value of the scholarship because it is the approximate average per-pupil amount of funding the state gives local school districts.
How is the list of Georgia’s lowest-performing schools calculated?
The Georgia General Assembly passed the Promise Scholarship Act, known as Senate Bill 233, during the 2024 session, and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it April 23.
According to the law, the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement is required to calculate the lowest-performing 25% of Georgia’s public schools based on the average College and Career Ready Performance Index from the previous two school years, excluding the following types of schools:
- State charter schools
- Locally authorized charter schools
- Non-traditional and alternative schools
- Schools with only prekindergarten through second grade
- Residential treatment facilities
- Department of Juvenile Justice schools
- State schools for the blind and deaf
- Schools without a CCRPI score in one or both years.
The law requires the Georgia Legislature to vote each year whether to fund the Promise Scholarships, and the program will end in 10 years if another session of the Georgia General Assembly and another governor don’t extend it.
The CCRPI is the Georgia Department of Education’s accountability tool designed to measure the progress of the state’s public schools in preparing students for college and careers. The CCRPI formula comprises results from the Georgia Milestones Assessment System, which are the state’s standardized tests, and includes five main components, each scored on a scale of 0-100: content mastery, progress, closing gaps, readiness and graduation rate.
Local reaction
The Ledger-Enquirer asked the MCSD and ChattCo superintendents for their reaction to this news.
“While we are disappointed to see any of our schools on the Promise Scholarship list, this is the statistical reality based on the current calculation methodology and, as in the past, we acknowledge the need for continued systemic improvement to address this head-on,” MCSD superintendent David Lewis wrote in an email. “Missing from the methodology used to derive the list is the great progress many of these schools have made, particularly in the areas of student growth and closing the achievement gap among student groups that we believe is an important measure.
“So, while we know there is still much work to be done, we do want to recognize the hard work and continued effort of our students, teachers and school leaders working in our challenged schools that has led to improvement on all performance metrics to include high-performing students in each of the schools on the list. It is also important to note that, according to current legislation and without a designated performance target threshold, there will always be a bottom 25% of schools statewide.”
ChattCo superintendent Kristie Brooks wrote in an email, “Though we are disappointed by the announcement that CCHS was included on the list for the Promise Scholarship, ChattCo schools continue to support families in their right to choose educational options for their children,” she said. “Using the 2023 and 2024 assessment data, the calculations are based on a single CCRPI score formula from 2019. It is very concerning to me that due to the size of CCHS, there are components that make up the score that are unable to be calculated for CCHS. Because of this, CCHS is unable to benefit from additional points in the calculation as we have too few students to receive progress points, etc.
“. . . Regardless of the formula or the list, we are aware that CCHS must improve instructionally specifically in the area of American Literature as this has remained the lowest area of performance. Contrasting these scores to the improvements in areas such as Algebra 1 (where we were recently named a Math Leader School by GaDOE), we are committed to increasing the instructional best practices necessary for student success in American Literature.
“Other accountability measures such as graduation rate and closing the achievement gap continue to exceed the state expectations. Specifically, in 2024, CCHS obtained 100 points for closing the achievement gap indicating that every subgroup met the state targets (with exception of Hispanics in American Literature).
“. . . We remain pleased with our elementary and middle school as their test scores have consistently exceeded the state averages. We will continue to maximize the benefits found at CCHS while we also remain committed to improving test scores in American Literature. Fortunately, our students are graduating (over 91% grad rate) and demonstrating exceptional success as they transition into post-secondary enrollment or the workforce which is an indication that one test score does not define a student’s ability just as one list does not define the strengths of a school.
“As always, we welcome families to ChattCo for tours, encourage them to ask questions or to even observe in classrooms because partnering with families is the best option for ensuring student success.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2024 at 1:48 PM.
