ATLANTA (AP) – Georgia lawmakers must first agree on how much they will spend to agree on the state’s budget. New voucher program For private schools and homeschooling.
Unlike some states, Georgia’s voucher program agreed last year when lawmakers created a program that determines how they use it each year.
State Senate passed that version Next year’s budget On Friday, they hope to spend $141 million on the program. The House of Representatives proposed spending just $46 million. There is an important disagreement lawmakers must resolve before Georgia’s annual legislative session ends next week.
At $6,500 per voucher, the Senate amount offers enough for over 21,000 vouchers, while the home amounts only provide around 7,000 slots.
The overall budget would spend $37.7 billion on state revenues in the year that starts July 1st. The federal and other money combined will amount to over $67 billion.
Voucher Program It’s expanding nationwide. Many supporters hope that all students will qualify, regardless of school performance or family income. The status adopted Universal voucherArizona, Florida, Iowa, Ohio and more, reporting more applications than expected, and costs are inflated.
Georgia Democrats fear what’s going on here, but lawmakers have to change state laws to spend more than 1% of what the state spends on public schools.
“Let’s call it what this is, moving public funds into private hands,” said Democrat Sen. Navila Islam Parks, of Duluth.
Blake Tilary, Republican Vidalia, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, defended the program and spending, claiming that reading achievement is low, indicating the need for change.
“The reason we support the voucher program is that we have to be given the ability to do better,” Tilary said. “Their parents must be given the option to take their children elsewhere. Why? Because we have made them fail.”
However, House members complained to the Georgia Educational Savings Bureau, a group created to administer the program. I interpreted the law To qualify more students than many lawmakers expected.
The program is in the middle of its initial application period, running until April 15th. As of Thursday, 4,439 applications had been approved. There are two more application periods set for summer and fall, but it is unclear whether the total number of applications will be approved.
Tilletley said Thursday that if the scholarship program doesn’t require the entire $141 million, lawmakers can get their money back later.
The Senate budget also rejected the House’s proposal to borrow more than $300 million for construction projects next year. Instead, the Senate plan will only be spent on construction from existing state revenues for the third consecutive year.
“We’re funding in cash and saving 10 to 20 years from now and 20 years after payments for the building we’re currently building,” said Ti and Teely.
Gov. Brian Kemp has set the maximum amount that lawmakers can spend, so they can only move their money into various spending items. This means lawmakers need to reduce their spending on one item in order to increase spending on another item. So the Senate refused to borrow and with increased spending on vouchers, it interjected to spending the proposed home on other items including supplemental funds. Educate students in poverty.
The Senate plan also costs less than the House proposed grants to prisons, mental health, housing and rural communities.
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