Ag News

School Choice scholarships available for Georgia agriculture families

Learning to Serve (LTS), a Georgia Student Scholarship Organization (SSO), is offering scholarships to increase school choice opportunities for children of Georgia farmers and Georgia families whose income depends on agricultural businesses. These families can apply for K-12 private school scholarships through LTS if their students are serving in the community and meet the state’s SSO eligibility requirements.

The application for the 2026-27 school year is open through March 15. To apply for a scholarship visit https://www.learningtoserve.org/scholarships/ .

SSOs were established by the Georgia Qualified Education Expense (QEE) Tax Credit Bill of 2008. LTS scholarship amounts vary based on factors such as the student’s age, the quantity and quality of the student’s community service, and the amount of the school tuition. LTS considers each student’s story individually.

Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper’s recent testimony to the Georgia House Committee on Agriculture and Consumer Affairs highlighted the difficulties facing farmers, including soaring costs, financial losses and even rising suicide rates.

“In the last three years, less than 5% of American farms broke even or made a profit,” Harper says. “Our farm families are dealing with a lot; not just in Georgia, but across the country.”

Lily Baucom, Georgia Foundation for Agriculture executive director, emphasized the need to help farming families make the best choice for their students’ education in the wake of financial hardships.

“When extreme weather or business closures negatively affect farming families, they have to make difficult financial decisions,” Baucom said. “We are grateful to Learning to Serve for offering this option to help families continue to send their students to the schools of their choice.”

Mandy Hudson, Learning to Serve executive director, recognized the need to help farming families faced with tough financial decisions about their children’s education.

“I grew up in a farming family and saw the toll it takes on parents to provide for their kids’ needs,” she says. “These families sustain the number one industry in Georgia. I am so grateful for the partnerships that allowed Learning to Serve provide this assistance. Businesses in our state are eager to support farming families by redirecting their state income tax dollars to Learning to Serve through the Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit program.” 

Hudson says that LTS recipients put in the work to earn their scholarship.

LTS encourages students to serve their communities in ways that integrate their or their family’s passions and interests. Examples of ways students may do their service hours are through their church, Scouts, 4-H, FFA, animal shelters, road litter clean-ups, food pantries, Special Olympics/adaptive sports, Relay for Life, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. The main requirement of the service hours is that the student’s community service benefits others and the child grows from their service project.

“These students are taking responsibility and easing the financial burden of tuition on their families while growing a heart to serve others,” Hudson says. “It’s a win for all involved.”

For more information about LTS and how to donate your tax credits to help farming families, visit www.learningtoserve.org or email mandy@learningtoserve.org.

Learning to Serve is a Georgia Student Scholarship Organization that leverages Georgia income tax credits to help students earn a scholarship to attend an accredited K-12 private school. Founded in 2009, Learning to Serve has awarded nearly $10 million in scholarships to 4,000 Georgia students who have served more than 30,000 hours in their communities.

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