Macon, GA – History was made at this year’s Georgia FFA Convention as new legislation was signed into law by Governor Nathan Deal.

Governor Deal signed Senate Bill 330, or what is called the “Green Agricultural Education Act” in a ceremony during one of the general sessions.

“This piece of legislation puts into statute what FFA really has been doing for a very long time,” Deal said. “It puts it in a format where it can’t be tampered with very easily without changing the law.”

“Now across the state, any school system that offers and Ag course, also must offer FFA and SAE as part of the the instructional model, so basically, it puts our model of instruction into legislative code, which is very big for us,” said Chip Bridges, State FFA Advisor.

The bill sets up a pilot program to expand agricultural education into elementary schools. Currently, the FFA only has chapters at the middle school and high school levels, but SB 330 calls for a minimum of six elementary schools around the state to participate in the pilot program to determine whether and how an elementary agriculture education program could be implemented statewide.

The pilot is to begin with the 2019-2020 school year and will last three years, after which the DOE will report the results to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.

You can read over the entire bill by clicking here.