Georgia
A broken Promise? Georgia school voucher program could have vastly inflated eligibility
Public education in Georgia will likely see sweeping changes in 2025, as the Georgia Promise Scholarship, a program that allows families to divert public education funding towards private school tuition and other educational expenses, takes effect.
However, the pool of eligible students may far exceed what many legislators anticipated when passing the bill, SB 233, during the 2024 legislative session.
The Georgia Promise Scholarship, authored by state Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), was intended to allow students enrolled in the lowest 25th percentile of Georgia schools (based on the last two school years’ averages of the College and Career Ready Performance Index) to receive up to $6,500 each year to put towards private school tuition, school supplies, tutoring and other educational expenses. However, rules adopted by the Georgia Education Savings Authority on Nov. 18 expanded the eligibility to all those who live in such a school’s attendance zone, even if they do not attend the school.
Multiple legislators said they didn’t realize how broadly the law could be interpreted, and plan to reign in the eligibility requirement for the Georgia Promise Scholarship during the upcoming session.
“That wasn’t my understanding,” House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones (R-Milton) told the Associated Press.
Voucher programs have been criticized by public school advocates, who say that voucher programs divert funds from struggling schools. Though the funds would not come out of Quality Basic Education (QBE), the formula that determines how much money public schools across Georgia receive from the state each year, QBE is calculated using full-time equivalent (FTE) student counts, meaning that public schools receive less money when their enrollment drops.
In Savannah, students enrolled in one of 18 approved schools in the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) could soon be eligible to apply for the Georgia Promise Scholarship. The application window is expected to open in January 2025.
Maya Homan is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY who focuses on Georgia politics. She is @MayaHoman on X, formerly Twitter.
Georgia
Florida Georgia Line reunites onstage for first time in 4 years after split
Florida Georgia Line is back — at least for one night.
Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley shocked fans Thursday night when the duo reunited onstage for the first time since they split in 2022.
The surprise moment went down at Broken Bow Records’ annual late-night bash during Country Radio Seminar in Nashville.
The pair performed “You Make It Easy,” the hit they co-wrote with Morgan Wallen and Jordan Schmidt that Jason Aldean took all the way to No. 1 in 2018. Aldean was being honored at the event.
At one point onstage, Hubbard referred to Kelley as his “brother,” a telling sign that the duo may finally be on better terms after years of speculation about their relationship.
The Grammy-nominated pair announced their plans for an indefinite hiatus in February 2022 before calling it quits after their final show that August.
Despite rumors of bad blood, Hubbard recently insisted the split was never as dramatic as fans believed.
“This only became big and dramatic on the internet,” he said on a December 2025 episode of the “Human School” podcast. “There’s not a good guy, bad guy in this equation. There’s not a right or a wrong. Everyone wants to do that on the Internet. They want to say, ‘right, wrong, good guy, bad guy. Team BK, Team T-Hub.’ It’s not even like that.”
The singer explained the breakup ultimately came down to creative differences, with Kelley allegedly wanting to pursue a solo career while still keeping the group going — something Hubbard said he wasn’t on board with.
“BK stuck to his convictions and led with his gut and decided to make a decision based on his passion,” Hubbard said. “I set a boundary that I wasn’t willing to cross and it is what it is. We both accepted it way before the internet accepted it.”
Still, the distance took a toll.
“I hadn’t spoken to BK a lot in the last couple years,” Hubbard went on to admit. “But we’re going on a hike … I miss the guy that I was partners with for 10 years. I miss my old roommate, my best man on my wedding.”
On March 3, Hubbard and Kelley had reunited offstage for a family ski trip in Idaho — alongside their wives Hayley and Brittney.
“Proof that God’s timing is always better than ours,” Brittney Kelley wrote on Instagram. “This week was about healing, laughter, and remembering the “why” that brought us together in the first place.
“We left with peace about the past and a reminder that redemption is real and the future is bright.”
On Thursday night, Aldean had shown up expecting to play a song and leave, but was blindsided when a backdrop dropped to reveal more than two dozen No. 1 plaques, celebrating his milestone of 31 chart-topping hits.
Artists including Travis Tritt took the stage to honor Aldean, with Tritt performing “Night Train,” while others joined in throughout the night.
Georgia
Georgia woman charged with murder after police say she took pills to induce abortion
A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an illegal abortion.
If state prosecutors decide to move forward with the murder charge brought by local police against Alexia Moore, her case would be one of the first instances of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy in Georgia since it passed a 2019 law banning most abortions.
The arrest warrant charging Moore with murder uses language that echoes the law, saying police determined that Moore had been pregnant beyond six weeks “based on the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe”.
“No one should be criminalized for having an abortion,” Dana Sussman, senior vice-president of the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice said in a statement, calling Moore’s case “an unprecedented murder charge for an alleged abortion”.
Court records say Moore arrived at a hospital on 30 December complaining of abdominal pain. She told medical workers that she had taken misoprostol, a drug used in medication abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, about 100 miles (160km) south of Savannah.
The fetus survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital, the warrant says. The police investigator obtaining the warrant wrote that Moore told the nursing staff: “I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die.”
Georgia bans abortion after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected. That’s generally at about six weeks’ gestation – before many women know they’re pregnant.
Moore has been jailed in coastal Camden county since 4 March on charges of murder and illegal drug possession, according to online jail records.
Moore’s mother said she had no immediate comment when reached by phone on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Georgia Public Defender Council confirmed that one of its attorneys is representing Moore but made no further comment.
Court records show Moore’s attorney has filed legal motions seeking bond and a speedy trial. A court hearing was scheduled for Monday.
Ultimately, the decision on whether to prosecute Moore for murder will be left to Keith Higgins, the district attorney for the Brunswick judicial circuit, who would first have to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. Higgins did not immediately return phone and email messages.
The drugs misoprostol and mifepristone together are approved for terminating pregnancies during the first 10 weeks of gestation by the US Food and Drug Administration. Misoprostol can also be used alone if mifepristone is not available. It’s also used off-label for abortion in the second trimester.
Georgia
How Georgia manufactured the peach state myth
Peaches are one of America’s most recognizable fruits. In the US, hundreds of thousands of tons are produced each year, and the fruit is closely tied to one place in particular: Georgia.
The Georgia peach is on license plates, road signs, and even county names. But today, the state doesn’t grow the most peaches. Not even close.
This video explores how peaches became a state symbol, how that reputation spread through active mythmaking, and why the Georgia peach identity has lasted even as the industry changed.
Read more about the history of the Georgia peach:
This video is presented by Stonyfield Organics. Stonyfield Organics doesn’t have a say in our editorial decisions, but they make videos like this one possible.
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