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Friday, February 15, 2008
Winds shifting in the debate over education
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wandering on the edge of the wilderness, uncertain about whether the material difference between the two dominant political parties is the route they choose to more and bigger government, I find inspiration and hope.
It comes in a public hearing before the Georgia House Education Committee.
State Rep. Jan Jones (R-Alpharetta) is testifying. Before the committee is her bill to give state-level relief to parents who find themselves stymied by local school boards when they seek charter school alternatives — and, most importantly, enact the principle that the money follows the child.
Jones is a particularly interesting legislator — and an example of the promise that the transfer of power under the Gold Dome held. That promise is that talented, creative legislators could emerge and, once empowered, could invigorate change. They would be different — different in that they were fresh eyes and engaging intellects not invested in the status quo.
Jones, a Warner Robins native with a master’s in finance from Georgia State University, is a former marketing executive and small-business owner who first came to the General Assembly in 2003. My first impressions were that she was a serious, hardworking legislator with an interest in education — but largely along conventional lines.
Sometimes when I wasn’t paying attention, a different — and hence much more interesting — legislator emerged, the one passionately arguing for the reforms in her bill, House Bill 881. Employing the skills honed in business, she digs. She gathers facts. On policy. On procedure. On outcomes.
Those facts, meticulously researched, have led her to the kind of advocacy for parents and for public school alternatives that, when combined with the work of others, engenders hope that on education, at least, the party of Ronald Reagan can materialize and make a difference in Georgia.
Two other education bills introduced this session are a part of that promise of change.
One of the earlier and more determined advocates for giving parents options — especially the parents of children in nonperforming public schools — is Eric Johnson, a Savannah Republican who is president pro tem of the state Senate. This year he’s introduced Senate Bill 458, which would give scholarship-vouchers to children in chronically nonperforming public schools and those that lose their accreditation. Clayton County could on Sept. 1 become the first district in Georgia to lose accreditation. Another education bill that inspires hope was introduced last week by State Rep. David Casas (R-Lilburn), who teaches high school classes on government and economics in Cobb County. He, too, is interesting in that he is a prime example of those who once were the obstacles to any real reform in public education — legislators connected to school systems.
Born in Spain to Cuban parents, he took office with Jones in the class of 2003. And, like Jones, he has emerged as a legislator who deviates from the expected course.
The bill he introduced a week ago, House Bill 1133, would give a state income tax credit to individuals and corporations donating to school-choice scholarship organizations. It’s similar to programs in Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Rhode Island. It would allow individuals to contribute $1,000 and couples $2,500 annually to nonprofits offering grants to public school students to attend private schools. Listening to Jones testify on HB 881, I am suddenly aware that, indeed, the center of gravity on the education debate has shifted. No longer are we stuck on inputs and debate about how one government can best grow another, which the input set chooses to define as “local control.”
“It is a unique opportunity,” Jones says of her bill establishing a state commission to grant charters, along with a fairer funding model. “This enhances local control by letting the consumer decide. To narrowly define local control [as] government monoply control does a disservice to Georgia.” And to children who either drop out or struggle through bad schools that show no promise of improving.
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