Georgia Senate passes bill to create state-funded education savings accounts | Georgia

(The Center Square) — The Georgia Senate handed law to create state-funded education savings accounts.

Under Senate Bill 233, the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, taxpayers would fund $6,000 in keeping with pupil in keeping with faculty 12 months. Families may just use the cash to defray “qualified” education prices, similar to non-public faculty tuition.

“Parents across the country are demanding more educational options in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Buzz Brockway, vice chairman of public coverage for the Georgia Center for Opportunity, mentioned in a observation. “Now is not the time for more lip-service or half-hearted efforts to help students reverse learning loss. Georgia families need more opportunities and they need them now.

“Promise Scholarships would empower scholars to excel of their education,” Brockway added. “With S.B. 233 now headed to the House, we inspire lawmakers in that chamber to do proper through Georgia households and make Promise Scholarships a fact. It’s way past time and we will’t find the money for to lengthen any more.”

The measure would also task the Georgia Student Finance Commission to “promulgate regulations and laws” of the program. The state Senate voted 33-23 in favor of the bill.

“With this vote, the Senate has proven they’re at the facet of Georgia scholars and fogeys,” Americans for Prosperity – Georgia Deputy State Director Tony West said in a statement. “Promise Scholarship Accounts have the prospective to assist each and every pupil be triumphant and achieve their complete doable. I’m happy to see the Senate approve this law, and urge the House to briefly cross the bill.”

According to a report from Public Funds Public Schools, a Southern Poverty Law Center and Education Law Center undertaking, Georgia operates a “typical voucher program” — the Special Needs Scholarship Program, introduced in 2007 — and the Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit program, launched in 2008.

According to the group’s analysis, in fiscal 2009, the state’s spending on the voucher programs totaled $11.1 million, while per-pupil funding for public education was $10,536. In fiscal 2019, the state’s spending on vouchers increased to more than $109.1 million, while per-pupil funding for public education was $10,336.

“This document throws into stark reduction a proven fact that education privatizers need to conceal: the fiscal penalties of personal faculty voucher systems are really extensive, and those state expenditures are rising at a precipitous tempo,” Jessica Levin, deputy litigation director at ELC and director of PFPS, said in an announcement.

“This pattern is outstanding given the proof appearing that vouchers negatively have an effect on teachers, faculty integration, and civil rights,” Levin added. “If states don’t rein in voucher spending and building up spending on evidence-based public education measures, the effects for college students around the country will likely be serious.”