Some of Georgia’s 39,000 homeschoolers will soon be able to rub elbows with the public and private school elite through the Governor’s Honors Program.
Admission into the program is considered an academic coup and a résumé-builder for the roughly 700 rising juniors and seniors who are selected.
The program, which cost the state about $1.2 million last year, offers participants a chance to spend six weeks during the summer immersed in study with other students who are gifted in academics or the arts. The students’ only expenses are travel costs and incidental spending.
The Governor’s Honors Program has been around since 1964, and, this year, the Legislature voted to extend it to home study students. On Thursday, the State Board of Education voted to tweak its rules accordingly.
Mike Olson, president of the Home Education Information Resource, said Thursday his group applauds the program’s expansion.
“We are excited that gifted and talented home-educated students will share this enriching opportunity with gifted and talented students of other educational programs,” Olson said.
A provision in the law requires the home-school student to apply to a committee of the local public school district to be considered for nomination to the program, he said.
“We hope that implementation of the program in each local district will achieve the vision of inclusiveness evenly across the state,” Olson said.
Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) has said the program’s expansion should provide talented home-school students more chances for scholarships and easier acceptance into college.
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