Subcommittee vote set for Monday at 8 am

CONTACT MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE EDUCATION COMMITTEE TODAY

Legislation, SB 233, to create a radical new voucher program in Georgia, will be heard Monday morning in a subcommittee of the House Education Committee.

The bill removes funding from the poorest schools in Georgia and gives it to families whose children attend private school.

The bill provides $6,000 for students attending private school or who are homeschooled. The $6,000 voucher could be used anywhere in the state ... even in another state!

$6,000 is double the amount the state spends per student in our public schools as expressed by the Basic Unit Cost of $3,022.47 in the current version of the 2023-2034 state budget.

The true cost of the bill could be $240 million each year if only 10 percent of an estimated 400,000 eligible students take advantage of the voucher. That's $240 million that ought to be invested in these disadvantaged schools and a myriad of other pressing public education priorities.

The bill does almost nothing for students in rural and south Georgia, where there are very few private schools that accept state funding or voucher money.

The bill benefits a small few while leaving those left behind much worse off. It essentially creates two, state-funded education systems: one for the haves and one for the have-nots.

Rather than provide the resources and funding needed for these schools and communities, SB 233 would leave them weakened.

There is no government oversight of the program provided in the bill. Accountability rests with the parents who are benefiting from the voucher and who are appointed by an unelected director of the Georgia Student Finance Commission. The parents of students receiving the SB 233 vouchers also are empowered to determine qualified education expenses with no guard rails to prevent fraud or abuse.

One of a handful of measures of the program's "success" is a survey of participating parents to gauge how happy they are to be getting $6,000 from the state.

Please write members of the House Education Committee today expressing your opposition to the bill. Begin by clicking here, where a sample letter is provided for you to personalize. Your message will be sent directly to the members of the committee.