HB 796: Education; revise QBE program weights based on recommendations of the 2015 Education Reform Commission

Georgia currently funds public schools through the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula, which sets a base funding amount tied to the high school general education program and then applies different funding weights to 18 separate instructional programs, each with its own required teacher-student ratio, such as kindergarten, primary grades, programs for disabled students, and gifted education. HB796 changes the base program used for comparison from high school to middle school general education. It also eliminates the old list of 18 programs and their required teacher-student ratios, replacing them with 12 new weighted categories based on grade band, disability category, gifted status, economic disadvantage, career and technical education, and English language learner status. These new weights are lower numbers than the old ones because they represent additional funding on top of a shared base, following recommendations from Georgia's 2015 Education Reform Commission. The bill keeps the existing rules for annual funding calculations, prorating shortfalls, and the training-and-experience salary adjustment, and it keeps a requirement for a task force to review the weights every three years.

• Changes the base program used to calculate per-student school funding from the high school general education program to the middle school general education program.
• Removes 18 separate instructional program categories and their required teacher-student ratios from the funding formula in Georgia's Quality Basic Education Act (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-161).
• Replaces those categories with 12 new weighted funding categories, including grade bands, five disability categories, gifted students, economically disadvantaged students, career and technical education students, and English language learner students.
• Removes teacher-student ratio requirements from the statute, so funding weights are no longer tied to a mandated staffing ratio.
• Keeps the existing requirement that the Governor appoint a task force every three years to review the funding weights and recommend changes to the General Assembly.

Local school districts and the State Board of Education, which use this formula to calculate state funding; students in specific categories such as those with disabilities, gifted students, English language learners, and economically disadvantaged students, whose funding weight changes; and teachers, since mandated ratios tied to funding are removed.

Because school funding weights determine how much money each district gets per student in different categories, changing the base program and the weighting structure could shift how state dollars are distributed among Georgia's school districts and student groups, potentially without teacher-ratio requirements attached to that funding.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2-161(a) to make the middle school general education program, rather than high school, the base program for calculating the base funding amount.
• Section 1 removes the requirement that program weights be tied to specific teacher-student ratios listed in subsection (b).
• Section 1 replaces the 18 former program categories (kindergarten, primary grades, upper elementary, middle school, high school, career/technical, five disability categories, gifted, remedial, alternative education, and ESOL) with 12 new categories and weights.
• New weights include 0.2954 for pre-K through grade three, 5.1056 for the highest disability category (Category E), 0.3377 for intellectually gifted students, and 0.0997 for economically disadvantaged students.
• Subsections (c) through (f), covering weight adjustments for cost-of-living changes, the annual funding calculation method, training-and-experience salary adjustments, and the triennial review task force, remain in place.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2025-03-21House Second Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
2. 2025-03-20House First Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
3. 2025-03-18House Hopper (Cámara de Representantes)

• Karen Lupton (D, HD-083)Patrocinador principal
• Marvin Lim (D, HD-098)
• David Wilkerson (D, HD-038)

• public school funding
• Quality Basic Education Act
• education reform
• school funding formula
• special education funding