A new draft school voucher was passed by a Senate committee on Tuesday and could go to a full Senate vote.
Senate Bill 233, authored by Cumming Republican Greg Dolezal, would allow the parents of nearly all of Georgia’s nearly 1.7 million public school students to send their children to a private school in exchange for a $6,000 annual stipend to take the lesson.
Sen. Greg Dolezal presents his school voucher bill to the Senate Education and Youth Committee. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
“What we’re seeing when we look at other states that have implemented programs like this has not only improved outcomes for those whose parents decided to seek an educational opportunity for them outside of public school, it actually has the outcomes.” improved … to those who stayed in the public school system,” Dolezal said at a meeting of the Senate Education and Youth Committee on Tuesday.
Republican-led states across the country have worked to implement coupon programs; Iowa and Utah passed sweeping coupon bills last month, and Georgia lawmakers have pushed similar bills for years.
Proponents say these bills empower parents whose counties aren’t meeting their children’s needs. Opponents say they funnel public school fees into private institutions without government oversight.
Lisa Morgan, president of the Georgia Association of Educators and a kindergarten teacher, said the legislature would serve Georgia students better by allocating more of its spending to students living in poverty.
“Six thousand dollars is less than half the average private school fee in this state,” she said. “So my students who have 100% free and discounted lunches, who can’t get to school without school bus transportation, and who can’t stay home after school for (tutoring) without school bus transportation, actually wouldn’t, quote, ‘Scholarship ‘ give them the opportunity to go to any school other than our public schools.”
The average tuition for private schools in Georgia is $11,541 per year, according to Private School Review, and prices range from $1,042 to over $57,000.
Dolezal said the voucher amount was set at $6,000 because that’s about 10% less than the average amount the state spends on each student each year, which he believes would mean that each participating student would meet spending on would lower the state than if he or she stayed in public school. The program would only be funded if the state fully covered its share of per-student spending, known as quality basic education.
Dolezal quoted a study by state economist Jeffrey Dorfman:
“I looked at this study today,” he said. “Of the 181 systems, 176 actually have their per capita funding increased because the local money remains in that district under a program like this with the $6,000 figure.”
Stephen Owens, director of education at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said math doesn’t add up.
“That only makes sense if enough students leave to actually lower the cost of the school,” he said. “And I think it’s important to realize that cutting the cost of the school means laying off teachers, because we know that the vast majority of the dollars that go into a school go straight into a classroom.”
A student transfer would cost the school that portion of the student’s share of government funding, but would not equally reduce the school’s costs, he said.
“You can’t turn down the air conditioning by the value of two students, and you can’t cut two seats out of a school bus,” Owens said. “So it’s just an extra cost for the local school and a kind of handout for the private schools that come with very little expectation of using it.”
If 1% of Georgia public school students used the program, more than $101 million would be diverted from state tuition.
The bill requires participating students to be enrolled in a public school, so private school families could not use vouchers as a coupon to send their children to the same school they already attended. It includes exceptions, including for students in schools operated by the state Department of Juvenile Justice, those who are not citizens or permanent residents, and students convicted of certain drug crimes.
To participate, parents must apply to the Georgia Student Finance Commission. If accepted, they will receive quarterly payments in a special account that can only be used for qualifying educational expenses. A committee of eight parents, appointed by the head of the commission, is to decide which costs are eligible.
The bill is almost identical to the one shot down in the Senate last year, with a few differences. Removed language requiring participating schools to hire teachers with a bachelor’s degree or other credentials.
“This is something that I think worries a lot of Georgia parents because we have a standard for who is going to babysit their kids in public school,” Owens said. “Is that the same standard that private school is held to? And if not, why are we lowering the safety standards for our children to trump a bill for a private school voucher?
