The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
School voucher bill deserves an ‘F’
If you’ve ever driven down Interstate 75 to Disney or the beaches of Florida, you’ve most likely passed through or even stopped in “Titletown USA,” the home of the mighty Blazers of Valdosta State University. Valdosta is not high on many people’s destination lists, but regardless of what you’ve heard about my community, those of us who grew up there are bound together by connections forged through public education.
As a student at the local public schools, I learned with and from kids of all backgrounds. My understanding of the world was enhanced through our exchanges of ideas and opinions. In high school, my homeroom teacher always would remind us to “be the change we want to see in the world.” Her endless support inspired me to be a part of that change every day. I would not be where I am today were it not for teachers like her and the life skills learned and deep bonds built in my public school classrooms.
Recently, the legislature approved SB 233, a private school voucher that would divert funding from Georgia’s public schools to provide $6,500 annually for K-12 students in the poorest performing schools who have attended their local public school for a year to attend unaccountable, unregulated private schools. Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign it, and the bill could cost taxpayers as much as $140 million per year.
Lawmakers gave campaign speeches rather than support for the bill. They spun tales about “rescuing” kids from struggling public schools, forgetting about the vast majority of students who would be left behind with less resources and funding when state funds are divested to subsidize the private education of a small subset of Georgians.
The bill largely supports students who could afford to go to private schools to begin with: $6,500 is not enough to cover the $11,893 average yearly tuition of a Georgia private school, let alone the costs of transportation, fees, books and other materials.
In rural Georgia in particular, private schools are few and far between, and the vast majority don’t provide free and accessible transportation the way public schools do.
Fifty Georgia counties — including 38 rural counties — don’t even have a private school.
In rural communities, public schools are essential spaces for bringing people together and finding common ground. When the taxes we pay to our state aren’t going toward our local schools, our students, educators and communities suffer.
Without the 12 metro Atlanta counties, Georgia would rank in the bottom 10 states in the country for educational attainment. We know educational outcomes are strongly tied to the resources schools can provide for their students.
That’s 147 Georgia counties lacking adequate funding to support their students, including all our rural counties, which experience issues such as struggles with teacher retention and higher rates of child poverty.
These challenges would only be made worse by SB 233, investing public dollars in private schools outside our communities.
Polling earlier this year revealed that 76.1% of Georgians support allowing additional funds for students living in poverty, while twothirds oppose private school vouchers.
Instead of defunding public schools and giving up on the vast majority of young Georgians who would be left behind by an expanded private school voucher program, we should be using our unprecedented state budget surplus to strategically increase public education funding to support our struggling schools.
The bottom 25% of schools aren’t failing: They have been underfunded for decades and lack the resources needed to support their students.
As a proud product of Georgia’s public schools and now a young taxpayer of this state, I know it’s a mistake to give up on the public education system that supported my peers and me through our formative years in Lowndes County. We’ve trusted our public schools for almost 200 years and look at how far we’ve come.
Blake Robinson, a senior at Georgia Southern University, is a resident of Lowndes County. He attended Lowndes County Public Schools and plans to return to Lowndes County to practice law in the future. Robinson is a member of the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition and was a part of its efforts to defeat the bill last Thursday as it was being considered in the House.