Kemp Proposes Increased School Safety, School Transporation Funding.
The 2025 Session of the Georgia Legislature kicked off yesterday with all members of the Legislature being sworn in and a flurry of bills being introduced. Early in the afternoon, Governor Kemp, Lt. Governor Jones, Speaker Burns, and numerous Legislators gathered to head Governor Kemp to outline several aspects of his 2025 Education agenda.
The key items of the Governor’s proposal, received via press release:
- Support for Georgia Students
- 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 support new or expanded technical education labs in high schools that train for high demand careers as defined by the State Workforce Development Board.
- Support for Georgia School Teachers, Faculty & Staff
- Legislation to 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. Specifically, the payment would be raised from $75,000 to $150,000 and a person may elect a payment of $2,500, rather than $1,250, paid in equal monthly installments for five years.
- Increase Public school employers contribution to the Teachers’ State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) to improve the funded ratio of the health insurance plan. These increases from $1,760 PMPM to $1,885 PMPM for certified school personnel and $1,580 to $1,885 for classified school personnel will go into effect at the beginning of fiscal year 2026.
- Improving and Safeguarding Georgia Schools
- 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 $3,015,000 for expanded K-12 bandwidth as started with Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Funds.
- Fund crisis counseling training with the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB). With this allocation, 20 counselors from local districts and postsecondary institutions will be able to receive intensive training in a nationally recognized program designed to provide counseling support in an educational environment.
- Include over $872,000 in the Quality Basic Education program to improve the student to school psychologist ratio.
