Senate Bill 458

Chairman: Amos Amerson

Committee:Education

House Sponsor: John Lunsford

Senate Sponsor: Eric Johnson

Chairman Amerson’s Opinion of the Legislation:

This bill addresses the needs of families who are stuck in chronically failing schools or in school systems which lose their accreditation.  The bill offers a scholarship or voucher to parents whose schools or school system lose their accreditation, whose schools have been in Needs Improvement for 7 or more years, and for high schools which graduate less than 50% of their students for three consecutive years.

This bill in large part has arisen to address the needs of students in Clayton County who may suffer consequences as a result of their school board’s lack of concern for the system.  However it also is designed to meet the needs of parents in 19 schools across the state currently which have been “needing improvement” for 7 years or more.

This legislation:

• Reduces Government by allowing parents to make the choices with regard to the state’s spending on public education, not governmental boards of education.
• Reduces the Tax Burden by allowing parents to have a choice in how their education tax dollars are spent.  When parents can choose to spend their tax dollars in the ways most beneficial to their children, this provides much more flexibility for the taxpayer.
• Strengthens Families gives parents more options in their children’s education.  By its very nature, parents will be more involved in the education of their children and all research shows that parental support is key to a child’s success.
• Increases Personal Responsibility by allowing parents to make the choice of how their children are educated, not the government.  When parents make the choices, they are more invested in the outcome. 

This bill comes to the House Floor under the Modified Structured Rule. The Rules Committee approved a floor amendment, which will be offered by the House Sponsor, John Lunsford.

AM 33 0683

This amendment strikes option (2) [page 3, lines 22-25] which would allow parents to request a transfer to a public school outside of their resident school system which has available space. This is offered out of concern that systems which are already crowded will be forced to take on many additional outside students.