Students in 11 Northwest Georgia Counties Approved for Educational Subsidies
A total of 484 students in 11 Northwest Georgia will get $6,500 each in the first annual subsidies coming through Georgia Promise Scholarship and approved for educational expenses outside the public school system. were among 8,500 of 15,000 applications approved with recipients’parents notified of approval this month, making money available this school year.
Here are a look at the numbers of recipients from this area:
Cobb County 151
Paulding County 117
Whitfield County 64
Dalton City Schools 14
Floyd County 30
Rome District 27
Bartow County 20
Polk County 18
Pickens County 15
Catoosa County 12
Chattooga County 8
Walker County 4
Cherokee County 4
Money can be used for tuition at an approved private school, approved textbooks, curriculum, and supplemental materials, certified tutors, licensed physician or therapists, transportation to service providers, and other expenses authorized by the Georgia Education Savings Authority. Money not spent during the year rolls over to the next year.
Georgia Promise awards the money for qualified students to either supplement or exit the public school system was part of Senate Bill (S.B.) 233 approved last year by the Georgia General Assembly. It was opposed by Democrats saying the subsidies would be used by wealthier families to enroll their children in private school. The argument was the subsidies would pay part of tuition with wealthier families paying the difference.
Numbers show that isn’t true. Reports indicate that 75 percent of recipients are lower-income with households with incomes at or four times the federal poverty level. That’s $106,600 for a family of three and $128,600 for a family of four. Fifty percent of students receiving the subsidies are black and 30 percent are white.
Students approved for the subsidies range from kindergarten through high school. The Georgia Student Finance Commission overseeing the program states that around 30 percent of recipients are kindergartners and half are elementary age. The rest are in middle and high school. Approximately 60 percent plan to use the money for tuition and others will use it to cover the cost of home schooling, tutoring, therapy, and curriculum.
Legislators budgeted $141 million for the program this school year but participating numbers are well below that.
To qualify students must have been enrolled in a Georgia public school for the 2024-2025 school year or be a kindergartner entering school for the 2025-2026 school year. The student must live in an attendance zone of a public school identified as a low-performing school on the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) list. A parent must have lived in Georgia for at least a year with military service exception.
A school is considered low-performing if it ranks at or below the 25 percentile of its grade cluster. Cobb County has eight schools on the list. The Northwest Georgia area has more than 40 schools on the list. Individual schools on the list for this area include:
Bartow County – Cass High School
Catoosa County – Lakeview Middle School
Chattooga County – Leroy Massey Elementary School, Summerville Middle School
Cobb County – Argyle Elementary School, City View Elementary School, Compton Elementary School, Green Acres Elementary School, Mableton Elementary School, Osborne High School, Riverside Elementary School, Russell Elementary School
Whitfield County – Coahulla Creek High School, Dawnville Elementary School
Dalton Public Schools – Blue Ridge Elementary School, The Dalton Academy
Murray County – Eton Elementary School, Murray County High School
Paulding County – Allgood Elementary School, Bessie L. Baggett Elementary, Connie Dugan Elementary School, Dallas Elementary School, Herschel Jones Middle School, Irma C. Austin Middle School, Lillian C. Poole Elementary School, McGarity Elementary School.
Pickens County – Pickens County Junior High School
Polk County – Rockmart Middle School, Van Wert Elementary School, Young’s Grove Elementary School
Rome City Schools in Floyd County – Main Elementary School, Rome Middle School, West Central Elementary School
Walker County – Rossville Elementary School, Rossville Middle School
Melody Dareing is a freelance writer for publications in the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Germany. She is a former news director of Adelphia Channel 4 and WBHF Radio.