Georgia GOP doubles down on diversion of public education funds

Time is running out on Republican plans to create a voucher system in Georgia. HB 243, the "Education Savings Account Act," had poor prospects of being recommended out of the Education Committee, so yesterday leadership recommitted it to the Ways and Means Committee in an attempt to slip it through this session. That action is appropriate, as this bill is less about education than it is about steering money to a select constituency.

Not surprisingly, the bill is cribbed almost verbatim from model legislation from ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The act would allow students "enrolled and attending" a public school--or of age to start kindergarten or first grade--to redirect the funds that would been allocated for their education in the public schools into "savings accounts" to be used for private school tuition, tutoring, or possible post-secondary education. The Georgia Policy and Budget institute has predicted that this subsidy for private schools would balloon to $223 million by 2028.

This legislation represents another recurrence in a pattern of diverting funds from the public schools. When the Georgia Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit Program was passed in 2008, Georgia GOP Rep David Casas bragged that the wording of the legislation was deliberately twisted so that students could qualify by enrolling while not attending public schools. It took a very public shaming from the New York Times, the Southern Education Foundation, and even Rolling Stone magazine before the legislation was amended to actually require that recipients had actually attended public schools before they were "rescued." [Props to Rolling Stone for best title: "What a Scam: Poor Kids' Money Snatched by Private Schools!"]

What is most telling are the deviations that Rep Hamilton et.al. have made from the corporatist ALEC template.

The "model" ALEC legislation at least purports to consider the needs of impoverished students.  The ALEC bill suggests a full subsidy equal to what the public school would have expended IF a child qualifies for the free/reduced lunch program, dropping to 75% for a family earning 1.5 times the free/reduced qualifying income, ultimately scaling to 25% of public school funding amount if earning 2 to 2.5 times the free/reduced qualifying income. Earn three times the free/reduced qualifying income? No subsidy for you!

ALEC even includes an explanatory footnote that Rep Hamilton takes to heart:

iv] This particular set of proportions represent a framework for one approach to means-testing the scholarship amount.  Legislators should develop a formula that makes sense for their state.

Rep Hamilton neatly removes any reference to qualifying incomes or sliding scales. What "makes sense for Georgia" in Rep Hamilton's  estimation is to provide the same benefit to the offspring of millionaires as to the children of the poor.  No worries though.  The bill still includes language that the state should  "ensure that low-income families are made aware of the program and their options." More troubling is that I see nothing in the bill to indicate how recipients for this largesse will be selected.

At least there is a measure for accountability, right?  Looking back again at the Georgia GOP's record with the Opportunity Scholarship Program, Jay Bookman observed "Ga.’s private-school scholarship program is a mess," lacking any accountability measures for student learning.

ALEC included limited accountability measures to make their raid on public school funding taste less bitter: "Each year [PARENTS shall ensure that ]their eligible student takes either the state achievement tests or nationally norm-referenced tests that measure learning gains in math and language arts, and provide for value-added assessment." So how does that translate into HB 243? Like this:

The parent of a participating student shall:
Ensure that such student participates in all math and English/language arts nationally norm-referenced assessments administered by the participating school. 

While I hate to disagree with GBPI, there is NO requirement that these ESA students will take a state assessment. As the Georgia Milestones assessment is a state, not a nationally norm-referenced test, there can be NO comparison with performance in the public schools. Particpating private schools can shop around for the most favorable test while ensuring there will be no apples-to-apples comparison with public schools. And that growth model that is imposed on public schools for their evaluation?  Well, evidently growth models and value-added measurement are for suckers, not for the elite.

Incredibly, if a school taking these "scholarship" students performs poorly, there is no mechanism for eliminating them from participation in this funding bonanza due to poor academic performance.

The citizens of Georgia should recognize HB 243 for what it is, an absolutely shameless charade intended to divert funds from public school students to create a new entitlement for a very select constituency with very limited to no accountability.