ATLANTA — Georgians now have another way to give away money and get it all back when they support private school students in Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp signed onto a federal tax credit program.
The credit, established under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, gives federal taxpayers up to $1,700 back for each dollar they give to authorized K-12 scholarship-granting organizations.
Kemp announced at the state Capitol Tuesday that he had signed the necessary IRS form to opt Georgia into the federal program.
“That’s probably the happiest I’ve ever been signing an IRS document,” he quipped.
His action means people and companies will “be able to donate more of their hard-earned dollars” toward private education in Georgia, said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican running for governor, who attended Kemp’s press conference.
Critics contend that such programs divert government funding available to support public education.
But House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, called Kemp’s decision a step towards “educational choice and freedom for students and families” and said “more resources will flow directly to students who need them the most.”
The federal program is limited to families earning under 300% of an area median income. The median income in metro Atlanta was about $82,000, according to U.S. Census data through 2023, which would have placed the qualifying threshold at under $246,000 in annual earnings.
The federal tax credits will augment a state tax credit program.
The Georgia Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit gives individuals up to $2,500 back on their state taxes for every dollar they contribute to an authorized student scholarship organization. The organizations then award scholarships to students.
Married couples can get up to $5,000 in state tax credits. Companies can contribute significantly more and get the money back in tax credits.
The total state credits are capped at $100 million per year. They cost the state $88.8 million in fiscal year 2025, according to a recent report by state auditors.
“The credit merely shifted education expenditures from public to private schools, with no impact on the state economy,” the auditors said in a summary.
The state and federal tax credit programs are not the only government-backed support for students who want to attend a Georgia private school.
State lawmakers established a direct taxpayer funded program called the Georgia Promise Scholarship in 2024, and students first started receiving money last fall.
Enrollment was far below anticipation, with about 7,700 students participating, Christopher Green, president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission, said at a budget hearing Tuesday.
His agency, which oversees the state tax credit program, traditionally referred to as a voucher, is slashing the budget request for the scholarships in the amended fiscal year 2026 budget.
Last year, the General Assembly and Kemp earmarked $141 million for the vouchers in the fiscal year 2026 budget, but Kemp now wants to return $86 million of that allocation to the general fund because demand amounted to only $55 million.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat, an initiative of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.