Kemp unveils plan he says will bolster Georgia education

ATLANTA, Ga. - Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp wants to give public schools a one-time boost of $50 million for school safety and security.

But the Republican’s plan falls short of the additional counseling resources school officials want after four people were shot and killed at Apalachee High School in north Georgia in September.

The $50 million would be added to $109 million in continuing funding schools are already receiving.

Georgia’s governor also has proposed boosting state funding on school psychologists.

Kemp says his legislative package provides funding for additional school safety grants, enhances mental health and crisis counseling, and boosts technical education and transportation funding.

The package also aims to improve benefits for teachers and faculty and provides funding for capital projects to modernize facilities and equipment.

“We are spending more today on K-12 education than we ever have in our state’s history,” Kemp said.

Among the proposals:

• Allocate $120.8 million in amended fiscal year 2025 and $402.2 million in fiscal year 2026 to fully fund K-12 education.
• Provide an additional $10.3 million in pupil transportation - sustaining the higher rate of state-funded grants for buses and operational costs.
• Fund equipment grants of $1.25 million to new or expanded technical education labs in high schools that train for high demand careers as defined by the State Workforce Development Board.
• Increase the indemnification benefit amount in the case of death for the Public School Indemnification Fund to match the benefit for the Public Officers Indemnification Fund.
• Increase Public school employers contribution to the Teachers’ State Health Benefit Plan to improve the funded ratio of the health insurance plan.
• Allocate $50 million in the amended fiscal year 2025 budget for one-time additions to school safety grants. This is an additional $21,635 per school in one-time funds on top of the $47,125 base amount received each year. This year, in total, $158.9 million will be made available in school safety grants for a total of $68,760 per school.
• Sustain $3 million for expanded K-12 bandwidth as started with Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Funds.

Fund crisis counseling training with the Southern Regional Education Board, giving 20 counselors from local districts and postsecondary institutions intensive training in a nationally recognized program designed to provide counseling in an educational environment. Include over $872,000 in the Quality Basic Education program to improve the student-to-psychologist ratio in schools.

The governor is also proposing a total capital package of $212.4 million that includes $178.5 million for regular facility earnings, $20 million for the purchase of school buses, $7.3 million for vocational and agricultural lab equipment in fiscal year 2026, and $6.6 million in the amended fiscal year 2025 budget.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and House Speaker Jon Burns, both Republicans, said they Kemp’s plans.

“These grants will provide the flexibility and discretion needed to fit the unique needs of every school in every corner of our state,” said Burns, of Newington.

Jones renewed his call for a law mandating wearable panic buttons for teachers and school employees. Burns reiterated his calls for a program of information sharing among education, child welfare and juvenile court agencies in hopes such data will help officials better assess threats from students. He also repeated his call to earmark fines from automated school zone speeding cameras for school safety.

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