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The 2025 legislative session wrapped up last week with six big wins that move the state closer to GeorgiaCAN’s vision of an education system that leads the nation in opportunity and achievement and touch on every pillar of Believe in Better. Here’s what we accomplished:
Cutting out the classroom noise. In an age of ubiquitous digital distractions, Georgia lawmakers decided it was time to help students tune out the TikToks and pay attention in class. House Bill 340, the “Distraction-Free Education Act,” will require K-8 schools to implement policies that keep cell phones out of kids’ hands during the school day. The idea is simple: fewer distractions makes it easier for teachers to teach and students to learn. HB340 passed both the House and Senate with strong bipartisan support behind it, with passage in the latter chamber coming on a 54-2 vote and now heads to Governor Kemp’s desk.
Building literacy. Georgia didn’t stop at clearing out distractions; lawmakers also tackled the content of learning by doubling down on the fundamentals of reading. With an ambitious literacy package (House Bill 307 and Senate Bill 93), Georgia has joined a nationwide wave of states moving decisively towards the science of reading as the foundation of everything it does. The new laws prohibit the destructive “three-cueing” method of teaching reading–an old guesswork approach that encouraged kids to guess words from pictures or context clues–and mandate that schools use high-quality, phonics-based literacy instruction grounded in evidence. The team also secured funding in the state budget to put 116 new literacy coaches into the field to help teachers master proven approaches to helping all students thrive.
Expanding choices and opportunity. Georgia lawmakers gave a boost to ensuring every child can find the right school for them with a new charter school law (SB82). This legislation, the “Local Charter School Authorization and Support Act,” makes it easier to launch high-quality charter schools by offering incentive grants to local school boards for each new charter school they approve, creating a process that encourages partnership rather than competition. The team was able to get $500,000 in the budget as the seed funds for the incentive grants.
Funding the Promise Scholarship. Following last year’s passage of the Georgia Promise Scholarship, GeorgiaCAN successfully advocated for the program to be fully funded in the budget, securing $141 million to provide the ESA scholarships to 22,000 eligible students.
Opening learning through afterschool. After discovering through the Educational Opportunity Survey that Georgia leads the nation in the gap between high- and low-income families in access to afterschool opportunities, the team worked to inform lawmakers of the issues and delivered $12.5 million in the budget for grants for afterschool programs.
Laying the groundwork to be a top state for talent. HB192, the Top State for Talent Act, recommends that the Professional Standards Commission work with state education agencies to develop recommendations for career pathways and internships, laying the groundwork for future legislative action to expand access to a clear path to a career.
Each of these policies individually will make a positive impact in the lives of Georgia’s students, but working together, they will do even more to usher in a new era of education in our state