$6,500 school vouchers coming to Georgia as bill gets final passage

ATLANTA — Georgia senators gave final approval Wednesday to a plan to create a $6,500 voucher funding for private school tuition and home schooling, sending the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.

Senators voted 33-21 along party lines to approve changes that the House made last week to Senate Bill 233. House approval had long eluded the state’s school choice advocates.

Whereas last year a defeat of the bill in the House left Democratic opponents jubilant, supporters broke into applause and embraced as the Senate approved the measure, marking the end of a multiyear saga to create a third Georgia program funding nonpublic education options.

“When I cheer today, I’m going to be cheering because more parents and more families will have more opportunities,” said state Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming who sponsored the bill.

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp backs the voucher plan, including devoting a substantial portion of his State of the State speech to advocating for it.

“I firmly believe we can take an all-of-theabove approach to education options,” Kemp said in a statement Wednesday.

Republican House Speaker Jon Burns of Newington began to forcefully advocate for the bill, persuading seven Republicans and a Democrat who opposed the measure last year to support it, providing the narrow margin of victory in the House.

The bill would provide $6,500 education savings accounts to students attending public schools that rank in Georgia’s bottom 25% for academic achievement. That money could be spent on private school tuition, home schooling supplies, therapy, tutoring or even early college courses for high school students.

It differs from last year’s failed measure, having been combined with a number of other education initiatives. But opponents argued that it would subtract resources from public schools, with school districts losing state aid as children depart, even as other students will remain behind.

“This bill is a thinly veiled effort to segregate and discriminate under the guise of choice,” said Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, a Democrat from Duluth. “Private institutions free to pick their students will inevitably leave behind those who perhaps need the most support —- our special needs students, our struggling learners.”

The new program would be limited to spending 1% of the $14.1 billion that Georgia spends on its school funding formula, or $141 million.