The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Proposed boost in tax credits for private school tuition back
push is back on to expand tuition subsidies for private K-12 schools after hitting a roadblock last year.
Republicans last year proposed a $100 million increase in the state’s student scholarship program, but they only got $20 million after a group that backed the boost angered the wrong person.
The American Federation for Children made an enemy of then-House Speaker David Ralston when it financed mailers targeting Republican lawmakers in an effort to secure support for the legislation. Ralston called it the “dumbest” and among “the most deceitful” things he’d seen in his career, and he vowed to block the legislation.
State Rep. John Carson, R-Marietta, who sponsored last year’s bill, is now proposing House Bill 54 to expand the cap on the tax credit funded program from the current $120 million to $200 million next year. The measure has more than two dozen co-sponsors, mostly Republicans but at least one Democrat.
Taxpayers who give money toward these scholarships get a like amount credited against their tax bill. The credits run out when the program’s cap is met.
Opponents liken the tax credit scholarships to vouchers. But vouchers are direct government payments to private schools, while the program Carson wants to expand is indirect, with money going to taxpayers who give money to the scholarship fund that they otherwise would have owed the state.
Christy Riggins, director of the Georgia chapter of the American Federation for Children, said in an email that HB 54 trusts parents to choose the best school for their children, whether for rigor, a particular strength, a special need “or simply to escape a failing or unsafe public school.”
Ralston died late last year. The new speaker, Republican Jon Burns, has said that he is looking forward to a “robust” discussion about vouchers this legislative session.