Aware of increasing parental involvement in their children's education, Georgia legislators have passed two provisions increasing school choice funding in their state. Specifically, the Georgia General Assembly has increased the state's Tax Credit Scholarship Program from $100 million to $120 million.
Walter Blanks, press secretary for the American Federation for Children, notes that charter schools were not overlooked.
"They also increased the charter facilities' funding by $3 million," he details. "That brings that program's total to $8.5 million. Governor [Brian] Kemp (R) is expected to sign both of those provisions."
Blanks credits the pandemic for contributing to the increased funding; online learning, he says, revealed to parents what their children were and were not being taught in public schools.
"Now politicians are paying attention and are starting to fight for families to have more options and more opportunities," he tells AFN.
The Georgia Tax Credit Scholarship Program was enacted in 2008.
Across the state line, the Alabama Legislature has approved a bill that requires students to use bathrooms for the gender they were born and prohibits classroom instructions and discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity.
State Representative Scott Stadthagen (R) tells AFN he prays Governor Kay Ivey (R) will sign the measure.
"Our society is being attacked from every different angle you can look at," Stadhagen laments. "People are infringing on our rights as Christians, as parents. This bill prohibits any teacher or educator pushing an agenda on our kids."
He says students go to school to learn and to become better adults and citizens as they get older. "We don't need a teacher pushing their personal agenda on our kids," he insists.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) recently signed into law Parental Rights in Education, a measure that prohibits classroom instructions and discussions on sexual orientation and gender identity. That law applies to students in kindergarten through third grade; Alabama's is for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.
