A group of Republicans in the Georgia State House who were responsible to killing a 2023 effort to increase school choice in the state will reportedly work to stymie the education reforms again in 2024, according to a Friday report.
In 2023, Republicans in the Georgia Senate successfully passed Senate Bill 233, which would have granted state funded Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) of up to $6,500 for students in the bottom 25 percent of the state’s schools. The funding would have been removed from public schools at the same time, which rural Republicans claimed was unfair to students that did not leave the struggling schools.
The effort was defeated despite significant pressure, including from Governor Brian Kemp. It will once again be considered by the Georgia General Assembly in 2024, though many of those responsible for the bill’s defeat in the Georgia House told WSB-TV their decision has not changed since last year.
“I’m just not ready to give up on public education as we know it right now,” State Representative J. Collins (R-Villa Rica) told the outlet. The lawmaker (pictured above) claimed the school choice proposal would mean “taking money away from public education,” which is “not the answer.”
Representative Gerald Greene (R-Cuthbert) echoed the remarks to WSB-TV, claiming that allowing students to take federal funding to private schools means “cutting teachers, and as you cut teachers, you cut the services for other students.”
The critical Republicans are bolstered by Georgia Association of Educators president Lisa Morgan, told Capitol Beat the lack of options in rural areas mean it’s “not an option” for “the vast majority of Georgians living outside of the metropolitan area.”
Still, in 2023 the school choice reform received unexpected support from Georgia State Representative Mesha Mainor (R-Atlanta), who eventually left the Democratic Party after breaking ranks with her Democratic colleagues by backing the Republican-led school choice effort. Her decision to leave the party prompted school choice expert Nathan Cunneen, of the American Federation for Children, to predict Georgia will enact school choice reforms in 2024.
“Mainor’s party switch should be a wake-up call to every legislator in Georgia,” argued Cunnen. He noted that she “was willing to lose her party in order to help kids, [but] 16 Republicans weren’t willing to vote yes on a party platform issue.”
The expert summarized, “School choice will be back on the debating table when the legislature reconvenes next year, and if Republicans stick together to put children above the status quo, that legislation will be law.”
Four of Georgia’s five neighbors have adopted some form of school choice program, including Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida, which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes “has climbed to the top of some national education rankings” while “being a national leader in school choice,” with “nearly half of Florida K-12 students” now enrolled in “a school other than the public school they are assigned.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “State Rep J. Collins” by State Rep. J. Collins.
