Georgia’s school voucher program is starting, with lower demand than expected

Thousands of Georgians will soon be spending money from the state s new subsidy for private K- schooling as the first quarterly payouts appear in promise scholarship accounts More than students applied for one of the annual subsidies and about were approved That means the state is on track to give about million in taxpayer dollars far less than budgeted to families that have chosen private schooling over attendance at their nearby low-performing constituents school To qualify for the payments the bulk students had to spend a year attending one of the nearly constituents schools performing in the bottom quarter of state academic measures But the youngest students have a way around that requirement Under last year s law establishing the payments often referred to as a voucher rising kindergartners need not have attended constituents school to qualify According to new figures from the Georgia Pupil Finance Commission which oversees the undertaking a third of the recipients will be attending kindergarten Nearly half will be in elementary school with the rest in seventh through th grades The money will be paid out quarterly starting this month Families can use it for a variety of education-related expenses Two-thirds commented they plan to spend it on tuition according to the commission The rest will use it to cover home schooling costs and other allowable expenses such as tutoring therapy and curriculum Opponents of these vouchers argued they would mostly be used by the wealthy who are more able to afford the difference between the amount of the subsidy and the cost of private school tuition which can exceed a year As state Republican lawmakers were pushing Senate Bill to final passage last year Sen Nabilah Islam Parkes D-Duluth summarized the opposition mostly from fellow Democrats The vouchers are a mirage for families like mine and for countless others across our state she commented on the Senate floor adding that they would undermine guidance for kids who don t choose private school since citizens schools would lose state funding for each apprentice who took a voucher It is a battle for the soul of our instruction system Parkes stated I ve got news for you responded Sen Greg Dolezal R-Cumming the chief co-sponsor of the bill The wealthy already have school choice including certain wealthy members in this room who have been able to exercise school choice for their own children Supporters of the bill which Gov Brian Kemp signed into law a month after passage revealed the loss of state funding for citizens schools would not hurt them because they would no longer have to cover the cost of educating the voucher recipients The commission reports that three quarters of recipients are lower-income meaning the students are coming from households with incomes at or below four times the federal poverty level a year for a family of three and for a family of four Half of the recipients are Black and a third are white Two metro Atlanta districts will lose the the majority students DeKalb County with nearly scholarship recipients and Henry County with nearly Others rounding out the top five districts losing students to vouchers are Bibb County at nearly students Richmond County at nearly and Savannah-Chatham County with more than The commission cautioned that the numbers are a moving target because certain students may yet opt out But the participation numbers are well below the million that lawmakers budgeted for this school year Tony West Georgia director of Americans for Prosperity a group that lobbied for this initiative attributed the low participation to several prospective reasons parents haven t heard of the venture yet they know about it but are skeptical or they did not apply because they do not live in the attendance zone of an eligible populace school Only of applicants were approved which suggests that multiple who applied do not live near an underperforming school Address and state residency were the two main qualifying criteria I think that strongly suggests that the eligibility requirements are too restrictive stated West who noted that states with similar scholarship programs have not based eligibility on address He can see his group lobbying state lawmakers to convert Georgia s effort to universal access We ll see what the political appetite is moving forward he declared The post Georgia s school voucher initiative is starting with lower demand than expected appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta