Georgia may give more vouchers for private schools, paid for with taxpayer money.

[madfloridian]

If the legislation passes, the taxpayer money which sends special education students to the private school would be expanded to include foster children and military families.

One article says that the bill would increase the per-student funding from $6,331 to about $9,800 for special needs students.

Military students and foster care children would get between $5,000 and $9,000 each.

ATLANTA (AP) - A state lawmaker wants to expand Georgia's limited school voucher program to include students in foster care and from military families.

Sen. Chip Rogers, a Woodstock Republican, announced Wednesday he is introducing legislation that would use taxpayer money to send the students to private schools. The state already gives such vouchers to families with special-needs students, which started in 2007.

About 2,100 students in Georgia are receiving the vouchers.

Rogers' bill would increase the per-student funding from $6,331 to about $9,800 for special needs students. Military students and foster care children would get between $5,000 and $9,000 each.

This money would be taken from the public school system and given to students to help pay for a private school.

Here is more on the issue.

School voucher program would expand under bill

ATLANTA — A small school vouchers program would be expanded to offer taxpayer-funded scholarships to foster children and military families interested in private schools, if legislation under consideration at the Capitol passes.

These vouchers are available now to special needs children. Legislators and Gov. Sonny Perdue approved that program in 2007 after a protracted fight over the state’s role in funding education. That program has been heralded as a success, and now supporters want to expand it in an effort they hope will end with vouchers for all students in Georgia.

...." “I don’t hide that,” said Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, who will carry this new bill. “How could you ever say that less choice is preferable?”

Rogers was joined at Wednesday’s bill announcement by former state Sen. Eric Johnson, who pushed the existing voucher program for handicapped children through the Legislature a few years ago.

Johnson, a Republican, resigned his Senate seat to run for governor this year, and he’s made vouchers a major plank in that campaign. Rogers repeatedly called Johnson “the father of successful school choice in Georgia” on Wednesday.

Many feel that the words "school choice" are code words for privatizing public education. Frank Luntz sort of let things slip about that one time.

NEVER SAY: School Choice. INSTEAD SAY: Parental Choice/Equal Opportunity in Education

13. School Choice - Parental Choice/Equal Opportunity in Education

NEVER SAY: School Choice
INSTEAD SAY: Parental Choice/Equal Opportunity in Education

Americans are still evenly split over whether they support "school choice" in America’s schools. But they are heavily in favor of "giving parents the right to choose the schools that are right for their children," and there is almost universal support for "equal opportunity in education." So frame the issue right and you get the support you need.

Luntz 2006: 14 Words Never to Use

Florida had one form of vouchers declared unconstitutional on the grounds that it that "the vouchers violate the state constitution's provision that requires a "uniform" system of public schools for all students."

Florida's voucher program for students in the lowest-rated public schools is unconstitutional, the state supreme court ruled early January 2006 in a 5-2 decision that friends and foes of private school choice are scrutinizing for its potential impact on voucher debates nationwide. Chief Justice Barbara J. Pariente of the Florida Supreme Court wrote in the majority opinion that the vouchers violate the state constitution's provision that requires a "uniform" system of public schools for all students. The court sidestepped, however, the issue of whether the program violated the state's so-called "Blaine amendment" barring aid to religious institutions. In doing so, the justices appear to have effectively blocked an avenue of appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by voucher supporters, who would like to challenge such language on federal legal grounds. The decision will likely force many of the roughly 700 students who attend private schools with state money under the program, known as Opportunity Scholarships, to look for other educational options after this school year. The statewide program has provided about $4,350 per child in tuition aid for eligible students to use at secular or religious private schools.

Nobody ever bothered to start a lawsuit about Florida's other types of vouchers. This is a very quick and powerful way to destroy public schools. Take their money and give it to private schools.

Georgia and other states can probably slip these voucher programs through without too much fuss. After all the main media does not cover the dismantling of public education. Only a few bloggers here and there even bother to talk about it.

[RT Atlanta]

1. It's tough here

and the pukes have infested the state's government, who seem only too willing to bend over backwards and make this once "progressive" southern state as regressive as possible.

[madfloridian]

2. I imagine it is tough. Florida is totally controlled by the GOP...

and it just boggles my mind the stuff they get away with.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

16. You have Grayson

:toast:

[FourScore]

3. Yes, it is. But hey... what can you expect from a state that still allows corporal punishment

in school?

I'm from GA, BTW.

[More_liberal_than_mo]

4. This is total Bull Shit !

Governor Perdue is a total asshole who has had his eye on the GA Hope Scholarship Fund ever since he took office. When the fund was first established it was written into the GA Constitution that Hope funds, which come exclusively from proceeds of the GA Lottery, may not be used for any other purpose than public schools or as tuition and books for high school graduates from GA schools to attend a GA college. High school grads must have had a 3.0 GPA throughout high school and maintain a 3.0 while in college in order to receive these funds.

Now Perdue wants to raid the Hope Fund and spend it on private school vouchers for his well off repubs kids so they don't have to go to the dreaded "PUBLIC SCHOOLS". Actually Perdue doesn't like that poor kids are getting a large share of the Hope funds.

If this passes there will be a court fight as using Hope funds for "PRIVATE school vouchers" is against the law and the GA Constitution. If it stands up then the GA Hope Scholarship Fund is doomed as they have been spending more than they are taking in from the lotto already this year and will have to start dipping into the reserves next year to continue with full funding.

[-wulf-]

5. The ida here is

that the money spent on a student via vouchers is less than the cost to send that student through the public school systems. Private organizations typically can do the same work for much less than government organizations.

I'm not saying it is right or wrong, but this is why the idea is being considered. The public school budgets are strapped and we'll see a lot of ideas for fixing the problem.

I don't agree with taking money from a source, the Hope Scholarship, and using it for something other than what it was intended for. Based on this alone, I would protest such a program.

In a private business, it is practically illegal to use funds from Budget Item "A" to pay for parts of Budget Item "B" and for good reason. It leads to a waste of money that is almost un-trackable. Government does this shit all of the time.

[madfloridian]

6. Of course the public schools are "strapped"....they are losing resources

to private schools. Last I heard my public taxpayer money in Florida was sending about 42,000 students to private schools

Some of these schools are religious schools, which violates my right to NOT have my taxpayer money going to religious groups.

Your comment:

"Private organizations typically can do the same work for much less than government organizations."

It is not true.

[-wulf-]

7. yes it is.

I have worked in government, and I currently work for a not-for-private corporation that was established for the sole reason that such an entity could provide our service much more responsibly and quicker than the local government that is a share holder in our organization.

The projects that we manage always come in under or at budget and on schedule. Every one of them. The projects that the city manages waste so much taxpayer money that it is an outrage. This city has lost several hundred million dollars in one recent project because the project was started without even a finalized design. So far, the money spent on this project has gone nearly double over budget, and they still ran out of money.

This would never happen if a private organization, or at least an organization that doesn't have the perception of a limitless flow of tax money, were in charge.

In fact, with above cited example, the private businesses that are our other share holders had to "bail out" the city just to save the project.


I've seen it first hand, and have for years. The basic reason is a private business knows it has a limited amount of money to work with. Government does not have this restriction, so it is less likely to spend money wisely.

Also, I didn't say in every case. I said "typically."

[-wulf-]

8. also

our public schools here are broke, but they are not losing resources to private schools since there is no voucher program.

They're losing resources because they're wasting money on installing $6,000 Promethean boards in every class room instead of doing essential things like maintaining the building and buying school supplies. Hell, this year we got a list of basic supplies I had to send in with my daughter. Things like chalk, glue, pencils and other items that had to be in bulk because they were for the class.

[madfloridian]

9. They are losing money to charter schools also.

And being threatened with being closed down if they don't perform better with less resources.

It is the privatization of education.

BTW we have sent home lists of supplies for years for kids to bring. They have been cutting back supplies for years.

My last two years I had to supply paper towels to dry hands, soap for washing hands in the class before lunch, cleaner for the desks, and often toilet paper when the rest rooms ran out.

I see the destruction of public education, and no one really cares.

[Name removed]

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[madfloridian]

13. Oh, my yes, there is such a right. Welcome to DU but get your facts straight.,

Methinks you have been hanging around the wrong websites.

[Name removed]

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[defendandprotect]

11. Another move doing immense damage to democracy ---

And obama supporting more Charter schools -- ugh!!!

Whose values are these? Dems or Repugs?

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Damn. I'd rather not recommend this.

[madfloridian]

15. I know that feeling.

Now FL is trying the same thing....to push through more vouchers.