I am against private school voucher programs for one simple reason: scarce public tax dollars should be spent on public schools, not private schools. This bill expanded voucher programs in the state and harms public schools. It also prohibits TSPLOST funds from being used to subsidize public transit fares and limits how often TSPLOST initiatives can be put before voters.
Public education is critical to the future success of Georgia. As the burden of funding public schools has shifted in recent years from the state to local school systems, there has also been an effort to spend more public dollars on private institutions.
For many of Georgia's residents, public transportation is how they get to work, go to appointments, or buy groceries. Recent efforts in cities like Athens to subsidize public transportation fees in order to make them affordable or free has been a lifeline as other costs continue to rise.
HB 328:
First, it is necessary to understand how the Georgia Student Scholarship Tax Credit works. It is a dollar-for-dollar income tax credit that people can claim if they make a donation to an approved Student Scholarship Organization. SSOs are private nonprofit organizations that handle scholarship funds for private institutions.
As an example, if you owe $5000 in income tax to the state of Georgia, you can make a contribution to an SSO for a private school, and pay $0 in income taxes. That is $5000 that is not going to the Georgia general fund that might pay for public education, but is now redirected to a private institution.
I have no problem with anyone wanting to send their children to private schools, but we should not be taking away from public education funding to do it.
The TSPLOST provisions in this bill trample all over the principle of local control. No reason was given for why it is necessary to remove fare subsidies from the list of eligible uses for TSPLOST funds. This is an attack on public transit and affordability for those who need it the most.
To add salt to the wound, requiring an 8 year wait after a TSPLOST referendum fails is arbitrary and prevents local control. A few years ago, a TSPLOST referendum failed in Oconee county, only to be brought back the next year, where it passed. If this bill were law at that time, we would still be waiting on that TSPLOST proposition to come up.
