What do local parents say about school voucher bill signed by Kemp?

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Gov. Brian Kemp signed school voucher legislation and six other education bills Tuesday at the Georgia Capitol.

The voucher legislation will provide $6,500 a year for children who live where the schools are failing – if their parents choose homeschooling or private schools.

We spoke to a local parent about the bill.

“It gives us the opportunity to get ahead or to catch up essentially, with other school districts around us in of how many kids were able to get on reading level, and how many are able to do math computation at grade level,” said Jacquetta Williams.

Williams has a son in the Richmond County School System. There are several schools that qualify under this voucher.

“My perspective, if the argument was, we need to combine these schools, because our population is going down, then this works right into that conversation,” said Williams. “I have options now like every other parent does in Georgia. Today, we have the option to decide for ourselves and our children to not just have them in a school because it’s available, but to place them in a school that works best for our child individually.”

The plan was highly favored by Kemp.

“There is nothing more important to the continued success of our state than safeguarding and strengthening the lives, education and future of our students, and that can only be accomplished by ensuring Georgia students have access to as many opportunities and choices as possible that will set them up for success,” Kemp said Tuesday.

The law also allows students to attend a public school outside of their resident system without needing the approval of the system and increases the tax credit for donations to the Georgia Foundation for Public Education.

Republican House Speaker Jon Burns from Screven County began to forcefully advocate for the bill, persuading seven Republicans and a Democrat who opposed the measure last year to it, providing the narrow margin of victory in the House.

The bill will provide $6,500 education savings s to students attending public schools that rank in Georgia’s bottom 25% for academic achievement. That money could be spent on private school tuition, homeschooling supplies, therapy, tutoring or even early college courses for high school students.

A public school teachers group isn’t happy with the legislation.

“The Georgia Association of Educators is very disappointed in the age and subsequent g by Governor Brian Kemp of SB 233,” Lisa Morgan, kindergarten teacher and president of the group, said as Kemp signed the legislation. “This bill robs the poorest students in Georgia’s poorest schools of the funding they need.”

Morgan says the legislation gives false hope to working families.

“The amount of the voucher, $6,500, is not nearly enough to pay for most private schools, for which tuition may be as high as $50,000. Vouchers are not a lifeline for working families, they are a handout to upper-class parents paid for by the working class,” she said.

Also signed by Kemp were measures that:

• Move the Office of Charter School Compliance from the Georgia Department of Education to the State Charter Schools Commission.
• Encourage schools to avoid bus stops where kids would have to cross a road with a speed limit over 40 mph and increase the penalty for ing a stopped school bus.
• Provide funding for a superintendent for state charter schools with more than 1,000 students.
• Require the Georgia Department of Education and local boards to adopt policies on social media, cyberbullying and internet usage.
• State that no school visitor or personnel can be banned from possessing an opioid antagonist such as Narcan and direct schools to maintain a supply.
• Create a program to financially and technically teachers purchasing school supplies online, create a literacy council executive committee and limit the number of approved literacy screeners.

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