Welcome to the GOAL Scholarship Program website! Read on for information about Georgia GOAL, the state tax credit scholarship program and click here for information about American GOAL, the federal tax credit scholarship program.

Georgia GOAL's History, Mission, and Guiding Principles

In 2008, Georgia's elected officials had the remarkable vision to pass the Education Expense Credit law to provide families in our state with access to better educational opportunities for their children. Their legislative leadership resulted in what has been described as the nation's best education expense credit law.

Since inception, the Georgia GOAL Scholarship Program has been leading the way in implementing this important legislation through our ethical, transparent and proven approach.

• Georgia GOAL limits scholarship assistance to deserving families: Although not required by Georgia law to do so, GOAL provides voluntary guidelines for scholarship applicant household income and scholarship award amounts that GOAL's participating private schools have enthusiastically embraced.

• Georgia GOAL values the role of private school communities: GOAL was not created merely to process scholarship applications for a fee and mail checks to parents. By involving its participating schools in the scholarship award process, GOAL has built a level of cooperation and trust with private school communities around Georgia for meeting the financial, academic, and other needs of scholarship recipients and their families.

• Georgia GOAL values the role of the business community: GOAL views its corporate supporters as important advisors and allies in improving educational opportunities and outcomes and, when desired, creates public awareness of their investment in the program and provides opportunities for volunteerism and mentoring to their employees.

• Georgia GOAL emphasizes transparency and accountability: GOAL is setting a national standard for operating in a transparent and accountable manner—adopting Model Ethical Principles and Standards and voluntarily publishing on its website Georgia GOAL's annual contribution and scholarship award results and a Transparency and Accountability Survey.

The mission of Georgia GOAL Scholarship Program is to provide greater opportunities for access to learning for all Georgia children.

Our goals and objectives are:

1. To provide excellent customer service to our participating schools, taxpayer donors, and scholarship recipients
2. To encourage our participating schools to place a priority on recommending children from low- and middle-income families for GOAL scholarships
3. To operate in a professional manner, adhering to high ethical standards and committed to being a positive force among participating schools, scholarship families, and student scholarship organizations (“SSOs”)
4. To operate a competent and productive scholarship organization that respects our employees, volunteers, and Board of Directors

In pursuing its mission, the Georgia GOAL Scholarship Program:

• emphasizes providing scholarships to children from families who are most in need of financial assistance;
• emphasizes the importance of parents investing their time, talent, and resources to make their children's school community one that achieves high levels of academic achievement and character development; and
• strives to operate in an effective, efficient, and ethical manner with accountability to all our stakeholders.

The Georgia GOAL Program will continue to operate in a manner that is a credit to its scholarship recipients, private school communities, and individual and business contributors, and the State of Georgia.