Syfert Injury Law Firm
Your Trusted Partner in Personal Injury & Workers' Compensation
Call Now: 904-383-7448Your Trusted Partner in Personal Injury & Workers' Compensation
Call Now: 904-383-7448(a) Pursuant to laws now or hereafter enacted by the General Assembly, public funds may be expended for any of the following purposes:
(1) To provide grants, scholarships, loans, or other assistance to students and to parents of students for educational purposes.
(2) To provide for a program of guaranteed loans to students and to parents of students for educational purposes and to pay interest, interest subsidies, and fees to lenders on such loans. The General Assembly is authorized to provide such tax exemptions to lenders as shall be deemed advisable in connection with such program.
(3) To match funds now or hereafter available for student assistance pursuant to any federal law.
(4) To provide grants, scholarships, loans, or other assistance to public employees for educational purposes.
(5) To provide for the purchase of loans made to students for educational purposes who have completed a program of study in a field in which critical shortages exist and for cancellation of repayment of such loans, interest, and charges thereon.
(b) Contributions made in support of any educational assistance program now or hereafter established under provisions of this section may be deductible for state income tax purposes as now or hereafter provided by law.
(c) The General Assembly shall be authorized by general law to provide for an education trust fund to assist students and parents of students in financing postsecondary education and to provide for contracts between the fund and purchasers for the advance payment of tuition by each purchaser for a qualified beneficiary to attend a state institution of higher education. Such general law shall provide for such terms, conditions, and limitations as the General Assembly shall deem necessary for the implementation of this subparagraph. Notwithstanding any provision of this Constitution to the contrary, the General Assembly shall be authorized to provide for the guarantee of such contracts with state revenues.
(Ga. Const. 1983, Art. 8, § 7, Para. 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 2433, § 1/HR 763.)
- Art. VIII, Sec. IV, Para. III; Art. X, Sec. II, Paras. I, II, VI-VIII, X, XI, XIII-XV.
- Free attendance at state universities for citizens age 62 and older, § 20-3-31.1.
Programs for scholarships, loans, and grants for postsecondary education, § 20-3-230 et seq.
Tuition equalization grants for persons attending private colleges and universities, § 20-3-410 et seq.
Board of Regents' medical scholarship program, § 20-3-510.
- Constitutional amendment (Ga. L. 1990, p. 2433, § 1) which added subparagraph (c) was approved by a majority of the qualified voters voting at the general election held on November 6, 1990.
Cited in Hunnicutt v. Burge, 356 F. Supp. 1227 (M.D. Ga. 1973).
Fiscal resources of Georgia Agricultural Commodity Commission for milk may not be expended to fund student scholarships in the dairy science curricula at the University of Georgia or to participate in funding a private scholarship foundation for students matriculating in such curricula. 1976 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 76-115.
Constitutional prohibition on gratuities, Ga. Const. 1976, Art. III, Sec. VIII, Para. XII (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. III, Sec. VI, Para. VI), does not apply to state grants for educational purposes. 1971 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 71-147.
Georgia Forest Research Council may make educational grants only if the General Assembly has first appropriated funds to it for use in obtaining federal funds for scholarships and the combined state and federal funds are used for purposes authorized by the federal government. 1968 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 68-268.
An applicant must be a citizen of the United States in order to qualify for a medical education scholarship loan under this paragraph. 1972 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 72-68 (decided under Ga. Const. 1945, Art. VII, Sec. I, Para. II).
- Georgia Higher Education Assistance Corporation is authorized to establish and administer a program of guaranteed educational loans to eligible parents, but guarantee of and payment of interest on loans to parents who are not Georgia citizens must be by private, not state appropriated, funds. 1980 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 80-153.
College courses should presumptively be considered beyond the scope of the ordinary training agencies may provide employees in state government, although, in certain narrow circumstances, agencies may train employees in college courses which provide job-specific instruction. 1998 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 98-16.
A state department or agency may implement a doctoral-level training program for employees, provided that it does so using regularly appropriated funds to obtain federal matching funds. 1973 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 73-154.
- This paragraph would not authorize legislation, let alone board of education regulations, which would permit grants to the state board's employees independently of a federal education assistance program. 1963-65 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 758 (see Ga. Const. 1983, Art. VIII, Sec. VII, Para. I).
- Constitutional provisions require that any money which is collected by the State Board of Education from delinquent state teachers' scholarships must be paid into the general fund of the state treasury and cannot be used in making future scholarship commitments by the State Board of Education. 1971 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 71-126.
- The phrase "interested in becoming teachers" would not be construed by the courts as authorizing grants to persons who already are teachers. 1963-65 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 758 (decided under Ga. Const. 1945, Art. VII, Sec. I, Para. II).
Funds used to pay scholarships may be paid directly to colleges where students are attending; the board of education has authority to prescribe the terms and the conditions of the scholarships granted and this is an entirely reasonable and proper regulation to require for the receipt of scholarship aid. 1958-59 Op. Att'y Gen. p. 142.
- Current statutory law relating to Board of Regents' "scholarships" requires that the award of such scholarships continue to be conditioned upon the current "service of Georgia" requirement. 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 86-25.
- It was not the intent of the General Assembly that the Georgia Student Finance Commission comply with the Fair and Open Grants Act, O.C.G.A. § 28-5-120 et seq., in administering the HOPE Scholarship, Hope Grant, and other state scholarship and grant programs. 2002 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 2002-2.
- Student's right to compel school officials to issue degree, diploma, or the like, 11 A.L.R.4th 1182.
Validity of, and sufficiency of compliance with, state standards for approval of private school to receive public placements of students or reimbursement for their educational costs, 48 A.L.R.4th 1231.
Validity of public school funding systems, 110 A.L.R.5th 293.