Georgia Senate Bill SB128

Georgia 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/10/25
• Refer: 2/11/25

Caption

Quality Basic Education Act; grants to eligible local units of administration for students living in poverty; provide

Summary

SB 128 amends Georgia’s Quality Basic Education Act to create a new state grant program for eligible local units of administration to support students living in poverty. The bill defines covered students to include those in families receiving SNAP or TANF, students in foster care, and students without stable housing as defined by the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. It directs the State Board of Education to award grants, subject to appropriations, for supplementing services and instruction for these students. The Department of Education would calculate each grant based on the number of qualifying students enrolled in a district at the annual initial enrollment count, multiplied by 25 percent of the base amount used in the state funding formula. The bill also requires that at least 90 percent of grant funds be spent on direct program expenditures benefiting students living in poverty, with any unspent portion of that 90 percent returned to the State Board of Education. The grants are intended to be additional to existing funding under the QBE Act and other statutes.

Impact

The bill would add a new Code section to Title 20, Chapter 2, Article 6 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, expanding the state’s school funding framework to include targeted poverty-based grants. It would affect local school systems and other eligible local units of administration by creating a new funding stream tied to counts of students in poverty, foster care, or unstable housing, and it would impose spending restrictions and reporting/eligibility requirements administered by the State Board of Education and the Department of Education.

Sentiment

The available record shows no committee transcript or recorded votes, so there is no documented debate or formal vote history to gauge sentiment. Based on the bill text, the measure appears policy-driven and supportive of additional resources for vulnerable students, with a strong emphasis on directing funds to student services rather than general district spending.

Contention

No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. Potential areas of debate, based on the bill’s structure, could include the cost to the state, the use of a poverty-based formula, the definition of eligible students, and the requirement that 90 percent of funds be spent on direct program expenditures. Any concerns would likely come from fiscal or administrative perspectives rather than from the bill’s stated purpose of supporting students in poverty.