Double-Down on Georgia Education Freedom by Passing House Bill 328

By Mesha Mainor & Alfredo Ortiz

Last year, Georgia enacted the Promise Scholarship Act, which Mesha helped pass in 2024 by a single vote in the statehouse. This program provides up to $6,500 per year for students in the attendance zones of the lowest performing 25% of state public schools. These funds are a lifeline for Georgia families stuck in failing schools, giving them the opportunity they need to get the education they deserve.

The program has been a tremendous success, helping mainly black, Hispanic, and lower-income families. For example, at Windsor Academy in Central Georgia, 80 new students joined last fall because of Promise Scholarships.

Georgia legislators now have the opportunity to double down on this education freedom victory by passing House Bill 328 and making even more education funds available to these families.

This legislation significantly expands the state’s Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit, which gives Georgians a tax offset – up to $2,500 per family — on their state returns for donations made to student scholarship organizations. SSOs then use these donations to fund education alternatives for those stuck in the bottom 25% of schools.

Unfortunately, the state tax credit is capped at $120 million annually – a figure reached on the first day of the year. HB 328 raises the total cap on this credit from $120 million to $225 million, greatly increasing education freedom funding.

The Senate has already passed this legislation, but the House needs to follow suit this week before the state’s legislative session comes to a close. State lawmakers should make it their top priority. There’s no public policy more important than improving education outcomes.

The bill also includes important improvements: exempting students with learning disabilities from scholarship caps, waiving the public school attendance requirement for military families and students with special needs, and allowing businesses to count scholarship contributions against their insurance premium tax liability.

Along with the new Georgia Promise Scholarships, this tax credit expansion would help thousands more families access educational options that were previously available only to the wealthy. It will create more spaces in quality schools, support educational entrepreneurs developing innovative programs, and ensure that Georgia’s most vulnerable students have pathways to success.

A new federal tax credit that passed last year in Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill rounds out what for Georgia families is an education freedom trifecta. Crucially, the federal education tax credit has no aggregate cap, making it a likely significant source of funding for SSOs in the mostly Republican states that have opted in to receive it.

We know the power of such education freedom programs firsthand. We benefited from school choice to learn the skills needed to escape generational poverty and achieve success. We live in an age where access to quality education increasingly determines a child’s future opportunities. Artificial intelligence and automation are reshaping the economy, making educational excellence more crucial than ever.

Unfortunately, too many Georgia children remain trapped in failing schools simply because of where they live. Georgia’s Promise Scholarships and an expanded state education tax credit offer the means of escape – and the lifelong gift of a quality education.

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Mesha Mainor is a former Georgia state representative and candidate for Georgia State Superintendent of Schools. Alfredo Ortiz is CEO of the Job Creators Network.

Read the original op-ed here.