On Monday, the first day of the Georgia legislative session, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp announced a proposed package that would allocate a one-time $50 million spend on K-12 school safety.
The proposal fully funds K-12 formula earnings, provides funding for additional school safety grants, enhances mental health support and crisis counseling, and boosts technical education and transportation funding, according to a press release. The package also aims to improve benefits for teachers and faculty and provides funding for capital projects to modernize facilities and equipment.
RELATED ARTICLE: Nebraska Distributes $10 Million to Boost School Security and Safety
The proposed one-time funds are in addition to $109 million that schools are already receiving in continuous funding. The $50 million would give each of Georgia’s more than 2,000 public schools an additional $21,635 to spend on safety.
“We are spending more today on K-12 education than we ever have in our state’s history,” said Kemp. “I made a promise to hardworking Georgians that we would make all of our children a priority in this state, and we are doing that once again today.”
Additional Proposed Georgia School Improvements
In the package, Kemp 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
- An additional $10.3 million in pupil transportation, sustaining the higher rate of state-funded grants for buses and operational costs
- 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
- 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
- Sustain $3,015,000 for expanded K-12 bandwidth as started with Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Funds