Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns is putting the full court press on his GOP colleagues, as he urges them to warm up to a voucher plan that could potentially funnel funds into private school tuition and home-schooling resources. According to a report from FOX 5 Atlanta, Burns, in a rare move, made his debut at a House Education Committee meeting Wednesday, trying to move the needle on a piece of legislation that has seen resistance from within his own party's ranks. The committee cast a party-line vote, approving Senate Bill 233, and setting up a floor vote for Thursday.
The bill in question is a blend of several educational reforms, including provisions for increasing teacher pay, public prekindergarten funding, and more open public school enrollment. According to KEYT, for the voucher bill to pass, at least seven representatives who voted against a similar plan last year need to quickly agree to shift their stance. This includes a split amongst Republicans, some of whom had previously opposed the 2023 proposal.
Supporters of the initiative are touting it as an educational lifeline, arguing that vouchers could be used not just for tuition, but also for home-schooling supplies, therapy, tutoring, or even early college courses for high schoolers - especially beneficial for those stuck in underperforming schools. But opponents fear the repercussions it could have on public school funding and the potential subsidy it might offer to schools that may discriminate based on social and religious lines. "I'm upset that we can't create even a bottom-level standard of quality for private schools," Stephen Owens, the education director at the liberal-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, told FOX 5 Atlanta. "Otherwise, this feels overly deferential to private schools, not kids."
Despite the division, the proposed program would be capped at 1% of Georgia's school funding formula, which translates to about $131 million, a sum that could provide over 20,000 scholarships. These would be open primarily to students hailing from households earning less than four times the federal poverty level, unless demand for scholarships outpaces available resources. Rep. Becky Evans, a Democrat from Atlanta, voiced concerns to FOX 5 Atlanta, stressing, "We will have people using this voucher who have never attended public school."
