Section 20-2-14. Acceptance of donations, grants, and federal aid for vocational or other educational purposes; matching funds; authorization to make transfers

   (a) The State Board of Education is authorized to receive, accept, hold, and operate, on behalf of the state, donations, grants, gifts, devises, and bequests of real, personal, and mixed property of every kind and character; to lease, manage, and otherwise administer such property for the use, benefit, and behalf of the public school system of Georgia; and to accept on behalf of the state any funds which may be now or hereafter provided for, or be, or hereafter become available or allotted to the state by virtue of any appropriation by Congress or under any governmental regulation, order, or declaration of policy for either vocational or other educational purposes conducted either in or out of school, in connection with, or as an incident of, any program of vocational education now or hereafter established as essential to national defense either for industrial or agricultural occupations, and whether as part of a federal or a state program or a combination of both, in furtherance of vocational educational objectives generally. The state board is authorized to acquire and hold title for and on behalf of the state for the benefit of the public school system thereof any equipment or supplies, both permanent and expendable, that may be necessary for such purposes; to act as the contracting agent therefor and the custodian thereof; to delegate, in whole or in part, any function or activity enumerated or contemplated under this Code section; to contract with and cooperate with any department, agency, or instrumentality, either of the state or of the United States in any manner which shall be requisite or incident to this Code section and which in the judgment of the state board may be deemed proper for the carrying into effect of the purposes of this article; and to use so much of the public school fund or other funds appropriated by the General Assembly as may be necessary to match any such federal aid or to meet the terms of any past, present, or future grant to the state or any local school unit whereby the state or any local school unit, respectively, may be enabled to derive full advantage of the benefits thereof to the state as contemplated under the terms and provisions of any such grant for educational purposes.

(b) The State Board of Education is authorized to transfer any donation, gift, devise, or bequest of real, personal, or mixed property of any kind and character held in trust by the state board to the Georgia Foundation for Public Education to be managed and otherwise administered by such foundation. This subsection shall apply to any donation, gift, devise, or bequest of real, personal, or mixed property of any kind and character held in trust by the state board pursuant to Paragraph I(c), Section II, Article VIII of the Georgia Constitution, subsection (a) of this Code section, or Code Section 20-2-18.

Ga. L. 1937, p. 864, § 4; Ga. L. 1941, p. 568, § 1; Ga. L. 2013, p. 769, § 1/HB 116.