By Matthew Smith
April 8, 2026
Every year, the Georgia General Assembly meets for 40 days. Sine Die marks the last day that legislators can pass bills and resolutions.
During session, the Georgia Partnership engages with legislators and other advocates and stakeholders, using the EdQuest Georgia priorities to inform legislators about strategies that ensure more Georgians can access educational and economic opportunities.
In 2026, the General Assembly prioritized actions in three areas: early literacy, career pathways, and tax policy. In this legislative recap, the Georgia Partnership spotlights how the General Assembly acted on these priorities and identifies three areas that policymakers should focus on in 2027.
Early Literacy
During the 2023 legislative session, the General Assembly enacted the original Georgia Early Literacy Act. The law created a statewide framework redefining how elementary educators deliver reading instruction and how schools support struggling readers.
House Bill 1193 – the Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026 – builds on existing efforts by funding a literacy coach for every elementary school in the state and creating an endorsement to ensure literacy coaches are prepared to deliver professional learning and conduct student interventions. Other provisions include:
- Establishing the minimum qualifications and duties for three personnel groups: school-based literacy coaches, regional literacy coaches, and regional leadership literacy coaches
- Requiring local boards to develop unified literacy plans by January 1, 2027
- Setting new promotion requirements for first-grade students based on reading proficiency
- Defining the scope and duties of the Georgia Literacy Coordinating Committee and the new Georgia Literacy Task Force
- Sunsetting the Georgia Council on Literacy on December 31, 2026.
Four Implementation Challenges
- Quick Turnaround: Superintendents, working with their school boards, have about six months to create unified literacy plans in partnership with parents and community members. The short timeline could limit the ability of district and school leaders to seek stakeholder input and locate community assets.
- Student Retention: The Act requires districts to retain first-grade students who do not meet grade-level standards for reading proficiency. Research suggests that nonwhite students are more likely to be retained than their white peers even in cases where they score similarly on reading assessments. Therefore, district and school leaders should make every effort to promote students with supplemental academic support to accelerate achievement.
- Workforce Shortages: While the legislation provides state funding for districts to deploy literacy coaches in every elementary school, some districts, especially those serving rural areas, might choose to recruit coaches from their current teaching force if they do not find qualified candidates. Instead of taking highly effective educators out of the classroom, district leaders should consider hybrid roles for literacy coaches, in which they support professional development and student interventions while co-teaching with their peers.
- Teacher Preparation: In a 2023 study of educator preparation programs, the National Council on Teacher Quality found that only 30% of programs in Georgia addressed all five components of the science of reading. Teacher candidates face overload, covering a wide array of subjects within a limited time, making it difficult to achieve proficiency in any one area. The General Assembly should work with the University System of Georgia to redesign how programs deliver instruction to elementary education candidates.
Career Pathways
The primary goal of Top State for Talent initiative is to close the skills and talent development gaps that threaten the state’s economic security. To further this goal, the Georgia General Assembly enacted House Bill 1302, the Education and Workforce Strategy Act.
The bill creates the Office of Education and Workforce Strategy (GOEWS) as the successor agency to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. GOEWS will continue executing GOSA’s duties and responsibilities, including those related to education data accountability and literacy, while also serving as the lead state agency for coordinating education and workforce policy in Georgia.
The Office will create a career navigation tool that connects Georgians to personalized academic and training resources. The Office also will convene the Education Data Governance Board, an entity that will create a single education and workforce data system to support public awareness and drive state leaders’ decision-making.
Positioning the Office of Education and Workforce Strategy for Success
The Office of Education and Workforce Strategy (GOEWS) will work with state agencies and post-secondary systems to drive talent development across Georgia. As a statewide convener, the GOEWS will create a unified education and workforce strategy and market career opportunities to Georgians.
The Georgia Partnership also believes that the GOEWS can accelerate talent development in Georgia by creating a single, statewide data and reporting system. By developing this infrastructure, state leaders can evaluate the impact of current investments and forecast future needs through real-time modeling.
- Looking to 2027, the next governor should consider how to invest in data collection and program evaluation as a means to take decisive steps in developing a coherent talent development plan for the State of Georgia.
- House Bill 1302 focuses on apprenticeships as a vehicle to prepare more Georgians to for high-demand careers. Drawing on the High-Demand Career List, OEWS should identify the Top 10 occupations that would benefit from more skilled apprentices. The OEWS can designate what sectors are experiencing the greatest shortages in each region.
Tax Policy
Before the Georgia General Assembly adjourned Sine Die in the early hours of Friday April 3, leaders enacted two tax bills.
House Bill 463 reduces the state’s income tax rate from 5.19% to 4.99% this year and continues to reduce the rate to 3.99% over the following eight years if the state meets certain financial benchmarks. The bill also raises the standard deduction for all filers and exempts up to $1,750 in cash taps, $1,750 in overtime income, and $35,000 in retirement income from taxation. To recover some future income tax revenue loss, the bill repeals several personal and corporate income tax programs.
Senate Bill 33 establishes the Local Homestead Option Sales Tax (LHOST), a special sales and use tax to fund homestead exemptions. The bill authorizes counties to assess the LHOST after voters approve the penny sales tax via local referenda. The bill did not retain the 3% cap on property tax assessment increases contained in the original proposal.
At the beginning of the session, Senate Republican leaders endeavored to phase out the income tax over a six-year period. House Republicans attempted to do the same for property taxes on homesteaded properties over a similar timespan.
Lowering the income tax to 3.99% by 2034 will reduce state revenues by more than $6.5 billion, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Repealing tax credits may not offset revenue losses. Similarly, while the property tax legislation does not cap property tax increases, opting into an additional penny sales tax might not cover property tax liabilities for all homesteaded properties. With property taxes comprising about half of total school district budgets, even small reductions in local tax revenue could compromise districts’ ability to deliver high-quality instruction. Rural counties and communities with low property wealth are most likely to be negatively affected.
As primary season heats up, we expect to hear more proposals from candidates about how they will adjust tax policy to address affordability concerns.
Other Bills of Note
House Bill 1030 requires the State Board of Education to adopt content standards for middle and high school advanced math courses, set minimum instructional time for students in grades four and five. The bill also requires the Professional Standards Commission to ensure candidates completing teacher certification programs have the knowledge and skills to teach math including the four strands of mathematical proficiency.
House Bill 1107 requires the Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) to develop and report annual performance measures that evaluate the performance of each educator preparation provider (EPP) in the state.
House Bill 1164 requires the Department of Audits and Accounts (DOAA) to develop a program to monitor the fiscal condition of each district and state charter school by July 1, 2026, with full implementation occurring by the beginning of SY 2028-29. The bill creates progressive levels of monitoring, supports, and interventions for school systems.
Senate Bill 556 sets the student eligibility requirements for the DREAMS scholarship, a need-based financial aid program operated by the Georgia Student Finance Commission. For over 35 years, Georgia has provided only merit-based financial aid. The DREAMS scholarship, the first of its kind in Georgia, would provide up to $3,000 for students who demonstrate financial need, a significant step forward in increasing access and affordability in the Peach State.
Three Areas Deserving Attention in 2027
- Comprehensive funding reform
State policymakers should design a funding blueprint that identifies the strategies that increase educational excellence, accelerate opportunity, and secure Georgia’s economic future. Policymakers should explore how to redesign the K-12 and two post-secondary funding formulas to align with Georgia’s current education and workforce priorities. The Senate will study higher education funding in the fall in preparation for the 2027 session.
- Adult learner focus
State leaders should create specific goals and targets related to increasing the number of Georgia’s adults who enroll in post-secondary programs and earn credentials of value. Institutions can prioritize adult learner enrollment via flexible scheduling, employer placements, and quality academic and career advising.
- Public and community health
State and community leaders should invest in health hubs that facilitate the delivery of health services to residents who lack transportation or who struggle to afford healthcare. Providing multiple services at a single location increases the likelihood that residents receive services that help maintain health and wellness. By addressing residents’ unmet health needs, communities can focus on strategies that expand access to educational and economic opportunities.
The Georgia Partnership and the EdQuest Coalition will pursue reforms like these throughout the next 18 months, using the EdQuest Georgia State Plan as a roadmap for modeling the change that we would like to see in state and community strategies.
Matthew Smith is the Director of Policy and Research at the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education.