Add another to-do item on the lengthy list of education initiatives up for debate this legislative session: The fate of Georgia's tuition tax-credit scholarship.
Supporters of the scholarship, which allows folks to lower their state income tax by donating to organizations that fund private-school tuition, are hailing two pieces of news that popped this week.
The first is that the Department of Revenue reported that the tax credit reached its annual $58 million cap on Jan. 1. That meant that it took just a few hours for donors to reach the limit, which supporters take as evidence that the program is a runaway hit. (Last year, it took only a few weeks to reach the cap).
The second is a poll conducted by the right-leaning McLaughlin and Associates for the American Federation for Children, a pro-charter school group, found that 65 percent of respondents favor the scholarship program, and that 64 percent favor increasing the cap beyond $58 million.
AJC columnist Kyle Wingfield had more on the debate over the scholarship in his Sunday column, including details of a pending proposal to create a second, similar state program that's limited to low-income kids. Read all about it here.
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