The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State lawmakers rewrite school voucher bill
Committee additions to the Senate proposal aim at getting more support from rural House Republicans.
A state legislative committee Wednesday approved a new version of a bill that would expand public subsidies for private education in Georgia.
Senate Bill 233 also might bring a big cost increase for taxpayers, with as much as $140 million potentially allocated to the program per year.
The legislation still limits participation to students attending schools performing in the bottom 25% for at least a year, but the new version adds several inducements in an attempt to convert naysayers into proponents. It would allow participation by students who’ve never attended — or never intended to attend — a public school by allowing new kindergartners to go straight to private school using state money.
The measure passed the House Education Committee along party lines. The House of Representatives could vote on it as soon as Thursday. Should it pass there, it would return to the Senate for approval of the House’s changes.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, helped move the new SB 233 along, meeting in recent weeks with all the Republicans who voted against it last year.
“It empowers parents with options to make the best decision possible when it comes to educating their children,” Burns said during Wednesday’s hearing. “I would like for our House to send a clear signal we will not let our children continue to be trapped in a failing school, that we are taking a stand to give the parents of Georgia better options.”
All but one House Democrat opposed the measure last year, and they were joined by 16 Republicans, despite a push by Gov. Brian Kemp and support from Burns and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
Burns canvassed those lawmakers themselves to determine their objections and find a way to bring them to the table.
Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton, added transparency measures, such as a requirement that private schools test their voucher students and submit the results to the state. The results would only be reported to the public in aggregate, unlike with school-level results reported for public schools.
Jones also clarified temporary protection for public schools that lose students to the subsidies, with language that says the associated state funding would still flow to the schools for a brief period afterward. And she introduced a new form of financial oversight, with the Georgia Student Finance Commission placed in charge.
Parents could use the money for tuition and fees at private schools, but also for costs associated with homeschooling, such as books, tutors or online classes. They also could spend the money on doctors, transportation and other costs approved by a state committee.
The bill, which would start with the 2025-26 school year, also includes language that would increase the Quality Basic Education formula that the state uses to distribute funding to schools. The $6,500 in cumulative pay raises that Kemp has given teachers while governor would be baked into that formula, guaranteeing the raises in the future without relying on the whims of a governor or lawmakers.
For some of the opponents, though, any use of public funds for private schooling was anathema. These mostly rural lawmakers live in areas where schools are central to the community, bringing residents together for sporting events and employing a large proportion of the population. They worry that sending state money to private schools would eventually mean less for public schools.
“I have some of the best public schools in the whole state, and so they’re very concerned about this just being a foot in the door,” Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, R-Bremen, who opposed the measure last year, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in February.
The bill appears to address such concerns. It now includes Smith’s proposal to allow students to transfer to a new school district and take their state funding with them, whether their home district approves or not. Current law requires the sending district’s buy-in for the state funding to follow the student.
The legislation contains other sweeteners. For the first time, public schools would get state funding to build pre-kindergarten facilities. Pre-K supporters say there are not enough seats to meet demand.
Finally, SB 233 would cap expenditures on the vouchers at 1% of the state’s public school budget. It also would be subject to annual appropriations, meaning the Legislature and governor could stop funding it in any given year (though students would continue receiving money until they graduate or reach age 20). And the funding would be reduced in like proportion to the public schools’ budget should government cutbacks be required.