The 2024 session of the Georgia General Assembly kicked off Monday, and despite the lack of much activity on the first day, the 40-day session is expected to move quickly this year. All 236 seats in the legislature will be up for grabs this year, and qualifying is set for March. Also, Easter comes early, and that usually means a quick moving session.
Because this is the second year of the biennial session, bills that did not make it across the finish line are still alive and could be heard early in the session. One of those expected to garner a lot of debate is Senate Bill 233 – “The Promise Scholarship Act,” which would enable families to use a $6,500 scholarship fund for a variety of expenses related to their child’s education, including textbooks, tutoring, therapy and transportation. This bill passed the Senate and is currently pending in the House.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has listed this bill among his priorities for the 2024 session. Senate Bill 233 is still waiting for a hearing. Sponsored by Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the bill seemed to have a hard time getting heard by the House last year, and remains tabled in that chamber. Last year, Gov. Brian Kemp pushed legislators to approve the bill.
At the time of passage by the Senate last year, Jones said, “Senate Bill 233 gives parents the power to make the most appropriate decision for their child’s education and future. This is an important first step in guaranteeing parents have a scholarship option for an education path of their choosing. I look forward to working with Senator Dolezal and the House to ensure that SB 233 receives final passage and becomes law.”
The bill has drawn mixed reactions. Public school advocate groups are fighting the proposal which they say “unfairly labels Georgia schools in the bottom quartile of student achievement as failing and redirects public funding to private schools concentrated in metro areas.” In fact, the Georgia School Boards Association sent out an email Monday that urged members to “Please continue reaching out to legislators in opposition to SB 233.” At the same time, some critics from the political Right say that even though school choice is a good idea if done responsibly, the current SB 233 version still doesn’t fit that description. It contains no exclusion for illegal alien “parents.”
However, the Georgia Center for Opportunity has been advocating for passage of the bill. Their website states that “Across the country and in Georgia, parents are calling for more choice and flexibility in K-12 education. Several states have already responded to parents’ needs by creating education savings accounts and other education options, but Georgia has been slow to catch up.”
GCO highlights key points of the bill:
● The Georgia Promise Scholarships is a proposed education choice program that would allow parents to access the best schooling option for their child. These state-funded scholarships would give parents $6,500 per student for each school year.
● Eligibility would be limited to kids in the bottom 25 percent of public schools as graded by the Georgia Department of Education.
