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 Education13. 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 UseFlorida 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.