Georgia Chooses Odyssey to Administer Georgia Promise Scholarship Initiative
Georgia Promise Scholarship establishes framework to fund Education Savings Accounts empowering families to access approved educational resources.Atlanta, GA (November 18, 2024) - The Georgia Education Savings Authority (GESA) has partnered with Odyssey to launch the Georgia Promise Scholarship program, aimed at supporting K-12 students in lower-performing schools. This new initiative will provide up to $6,500 in annual funding for eligible students, which can be used for private school tuition, tutoring, and other approved educational expenses through an education savings account (ESA). The experienced technology provider will manage the scholarship’s application and enrollment process as well.Working directly with states, vendors, and families, Odyssey helps disburse state-approved funding for a wide range of educational needs, from tuition and tutoring to technology, software, curriculum, and more. The platform is mobile-first and accessible across all browsers and devices, making it easy for parents to apply, track funding, and browse a marketplace of eligible educational products and services. Odyssey has a proven track record in administering school choice programs across several states, including Iowa, Idaho, Missouri, and Nebraska, distributing $400 million in state funding to more than 140,000 students.“Odyssey is proud to partner with GESA and support the Georgia Promise Scholarship by providing families with a seamless, transparent way to access and manage their funds,” said Joseph Connor, CEO and founder of Odyssey. “This program is a game-changer for families in Georgia, offering them more educational choices and helping them meet their children’s unique needs.”The scholarship will be available for students who reside in an attendance zone of a school on the list of the 25% lower-performing public schools published by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA). To be eligible, students must have been enrolled in a Georgia public school for two consecutive full-time equivalent (FTE) counts (typically one academic year) or be rising kindergarten students. Funding will be available starting in the 2025-2026 school year.For more information on the Georgia Promise Scholarship, please visitmygeorgiapromise.org
About Odyssey
Odyssey is a mission-driven technology company that collaborates with state agencies to help families access high-quality education for their children. Odyssey works directly with states, vendors, and parents to support school choice programs, including education savings accounts (ESAs), by disbursing state-approved funding for tuition expenses, tutors, technology, software, curriculum, and more. To date, Odyssey's technology has helped more than 140,000 students access over $400 million in state funding.For more information, please visitwww.withodyssey.com
Contact
Odyssey: [email protected]Georgia Promise Scholarship Program, Hayley Corbitt: [email protected]
Odyssey Releases Nine-State Survey of American Parents
John Zogby Strategies' recent poll indicates an overwhelming demand for easy and digital access to publicly funded ESAs, transcending political and demographic lines, suggesting a nationwide shift in parents' preferences for modernized education funding options.
Key Findings
An overwhelmingly majority of parents (73%) want ease of access to publicly funded education programs, including Education Savings Accounts ("ESAs"), to aid in providing higher quality education to their children.
A vast majority of parents (80%) who have applied and participated in an Educational Savings Account (ESA) program reported that ESAs have resulted in a positive impact for their child.
ESAs have bipartisan support with 71% of residents in California and 67% in Alabama in favor of establishing ESA programs. These high margins of support remain consistent across geographic and racial demographic groups in both states, showing support across political, racial, and geographic constituencies.
Although back-to-school paperwork does not appear to be a burden to most parents, when determining eligibility for funding, parents place a premium on convenience and speed. This is reinforced by 77% of parents preferring technological solutions enabling direct access to funding for their child.
Among the surveyed states that do not currently offer publicly funded ESAs — Alabama, Pennsylvania, and California — over 70% of parents said they want ESAs to be made available in their state, and 64% said they would apply for ESA support if available.
One critical component of ESAs appears to be the ease of the application and user experience process. In states with active ESA programs, 80% of parents would prefer accessing ESA funding through a one-stop technology platform.
The great majority (80%) of respondents supporting ESAs preferred completing applications using a computer or mobile device over analogue methods, with 87% preferring a process that approves eligibility in seconds.
ESAs are a highly popular program in the states where they are currently offered and a desired program for states that do not offer them.
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These ESA programs are popular across racial and geographic constituencies further underscoring the notion that ESAs are a politically bipartisan education funding option.
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A majority of parents across states that both do, and do not currently offer access to ESAs, prefer that those programs be made accessible through digital means and parents want instant eligibility verification.