Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, plans to introduce a school voucher bill again and hopes the Atlanta Public School cheating scandal will provide impetus for passage.
He said an anti-dogfighting bill he pushed did not pass until Michael Vick, then a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, was arrested for his role in dogfighting in 2007.
"Maybe this is one of those moments," Rogers said Monday.
He will introduce a bill similar to the one he sponsored last session that would expand the existing Georgia Special Needs Scholarship program to military and foster children. The scholarship can be used by parents to pay for private education for their children.
"As you can tell, this is something near and dear to my heart," he said, noting he will continue to push it as long as he is a legislator.
Rogers also said the Legislature must act this year to save HOPE scholarships, the lottery-funded college scholarships that he referred to as "Georgia's most popular program."
"It absolutely must be done," he said. "We can't allow it to go into the next session."
Rogers said he and other legislative leaders were talking to make sure that happens. The program is threatened in an era of squeezed budgets, and Rogers said everyone recognizes that the program is going to face some cuts.
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