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Tuesday, January 30, 2007
No More HOPE For K-12 Schools?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This morning, Gov. Sonny Perdue is expected to unveil the latest version of his “HOPE Chest” amendment, which will limit the use of Georgia Lottery revenues to college scholarships and free pre-kindergarten classes.
The governor introduced his proposal last year, but the bill failed to get the required two-thirds vote constitutional amendments need to be placed on a ballot. I was surprised to learn during the previous session that some education groups, including the Georgia PTA, opposed the plan because they feared it would prohibit the future use of lottery money for technology and teacher-training programs in K-12 public schools.
After the lottery was started in the early 90s, schools were able to use some of the proceeds to purchase classroom computers and satellite dishes for educational programming. But that funding dried up in 2003 when Perdue stepped into the governor’s mansion and declared there was too much pork in the program. In fact, up until that time, about $1.8 billion of lottery monies had been spent on various and sundry items, including headquarters for Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Now most school systems pay for classroom technology with increases in local sales taxes, which voters must approve, or grants they seek on their own.
UPDATE: According to my colleague Kevin Duffy’s story Wednesday, Republicans are confident they’ll get the latest amendment through the Legislature this year. The governor says Lottery money needs to be preserved for future generations, but some education groups still are against the plan. Sally FitzGerald of the Georgia PTA told Kevin: “If we want kids ready for the 21st century, we’ve got to give them more than pencils.”
