Gov. Kemp Vetoes Additional Facilities Funding for Charter Schools 

Gov. Brian Kemp has vetoed the additional facilities funding for Georgia charter schools in the FY24 budget. (Click HERE to read Gov. Kemp’s statement about the veto.)
 
The line-item veto occurred despite GCSA securing FULL FUNDING for the Charter School Facility Grant in the budget approved by lawmakers. The additional funding had strong bipartisan support among state lawmakers and would have provided a grant award of $100,000 annually for every eligible charter school.
 
However, all is not lost. In FY24, all Georgia charter schools will continue to receive the $75,000 they received in FY23. GCSA has fought hard to increase the facility grant appropriation by more than $6 million since 2017, and we will continue to fight for equitable facility funding in the years to come. 
 
Rest assured, GCSA is working with leaders in the legislature to push back on the Governor for this decision. (For context, there were 146 line item vetoes in this year’s budget. Last year, there were just 26.)
 
Here’s how you can help us ensure this DOES NOT happen again: please FILL OUT this brief form to tell us how your school uses facilities funding. We will use this data to show the Governor’s office that facility grant funds are absolutely critical for your operations and should not be considered “bonus money.”  In the coming weeks, we will also be asking all of you to call and send letters to the Governor expressing your disappointment and explaining why these funds are important to your schools and to the students you serve. As always, we will provide draft letter templates that you can easily personalize, and we will work with you to get them to the right place. Stay tuned for more information on that. 
 
As always, we’re grateful to our member schools, and we will continue to keep you informed about any future developments or advocacy efforts.