A controversial private-school vouchers bill squeaked through the Georgia House of Representatives Thursday.
The bill, which would provide vouchers worth up to $6,500 to help students in low-performing public schools transfer to a private school, passed the Republican-controlled House 91-82, the minimum number of votes needed to win passage in the 180-member chamber.
The legislation next must return to the state Senate, which passed it last year, because House Republican leaders have made a number of changes to the measure.
Some of the House changes are aimed at limiting the voucher program’s financial impact on the state’s general fund budget. It prohibits spending more than 1% of Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) fund on vouchers, a cap that is currently set at $140 million a year.
In a bid to steer the vouchers to low- and middle-income Georgians, only students in families earning no more than 400% of the federal poverty limit – currently $120,000 a year for a family of four -would qualify for the program. The cap would be increased only if the General Assembly puts more money into vouchers.
“What you have before you is a responsible piece of legislation that will enhance the educational options we give children,” House Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones, R-Milton, told her House colleagues. “I have rarely encountered regular citizens who wanted fewer options.”
House Democrats argued that private-school vouchers aren’t the way to help the 90% of Georgia students attending public schools they said are underfunded despite the state having fully funded the QBE for six of the last seven years.
“Fully funded does not equal sufficiently funded,” said Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta.
“Vouchers are simply the defunding of public education,” added Rep. Miriam Paris, D-Macon. “Our focus should be to strengthen public schools.”
Rep. Debbie Buckner, D-Junction City, said vouchers would not help…
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