Georgia Senate Ed Committee Passes School Choice Bill, Three of Four Dems Opposed Sent Their Children to Private Schools

The Georgia Senate Education Committee approved a bill that would create education savings accounts for children across the state and, ultimately, fund students over government school systems.

The Georgia Educational Freedom Act (SB601) passed out of committee by a vote of 6-4, but, as the Daily Caller reported Wednesday, three of the four Democrats on the committee who voted down the bill sent their children to private schools.

The measure, which would provide families with “$6,000 per school year for each participating student,” would allow parents to use their child’s education dollars for private schools, tutoring, instructional materials, online curriculum programs, and more.

As the report notes, Democrat State Senators Elena Parent (D-Decatur) (pictured above, far left), Lester Jackson (D-Savannah) (pictured above, second from right), Sonya Halpern (D-East Point) (pictured above, far right), and Freddie Sims (D-Edison) (pictured above, second from left) all voted against the legislation, considered to be one of the most substantial school choice bills in the country.

In addition, however, Parent, Jackson, and Halpern all admitted they send their children to private schools, at the same time they voted to block families who may be financially unable to afford private school, from having that opportunity.

School choice advocates Corey DeAngelis and the School Choice Boyz drew attention to the hypocrisy on Twitter:

In 2021, Parent told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she sends her son to a private school because he has ADHD. She added the public shouldn’t have to pay for that.

Parent tweeted Tuesday an announcement about her bid for re-election, stating she is “committed to being a voice for equality and expanding opportunity for all Georgians.”

The Daily Caller, nevertheless, reported Parent avoided a question about her choice to send her son to private school while voting against allowing other Georgia parents to have that same opportunity. Instead, the state senator said that, since $6,000 per child was too little an amount to provide a private school education, those funds are best left to government schools:

This legislation only provides $6,000, and 71% of Georgia private schools, including almost all in metro Atlanta, cost far more. Therefore, this bill provides the illusion of allowing kids to go to private school but the tuition will still be out of reach for the vast majority and meanwhile the money siphoned from the system will make it more difficult to provide a quality education for the millions of kids who will remain in the public schools.

Halpern said, “I have kids in private school and I have kids in public school,” but voted against the opportunity for most parents to have that choice, as DeAngelis noted:

The Daily Caller also reported that Jackson sent his son to Savannah Country Day School, at a cost of about $22,000 per year.

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Freddie Powell” by Georgia State Senate. Photo “Lester Jackson” by Lester Jackson. Photo “Sonya Halpern” by Sonya Halpern. Photo “Elena Parent” by Elena Parent. Background Photo “Georgia State Senate Chamber” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0. 

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