Gov. Brian Kemp has a unique opportunity to build upon his success in passing the Georgia Promise Scholarship bill by immediately expanding the program to provide hope to the 11,500 low-income students trapped in low-performing schools managed by Atlanta Public Schools.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
By doing so, Kemp and the Republican-controlled General Assembly can continue their march toward giving all parents in Georgia the freedom to choose the education that best suits each child.
Atlanta presents a compelling case for expanding the Georgia Promise Scholarship program. First, APS is failing to provide parents with quality education options as evidenced by these facts:
• The average Atlanta grades in content mastery on the state’s 2023 College and Career Readiness Performance Index — on a 100-point scale — were 55.2 at the elementary school level, 48.2 at middle school and 50.4 at high school. By any measure, those scores would be deemed failing. Content mastery is based on student achievement scores in English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies on Georgia Milestones tests.
• The state’s Report Card — available through the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement — shows a stubborn and wide achievement gap in the performance of Black students, who comprise 71% of enrollment in Atlanta, and white students, who account for 16%. For example, in 2022-23, only 3% of Black students scored high enough on the state end-of-grade mathematics test to qualify as distinguished learners, compared to 40.7% of white students and nearly 48% of Asian students. The gap worsens in high school, where only 2.2% of Black students in Algebra 1 earned distinguished learner status in APS, compared to 41.2% of white classmates and 45.5% of Asian classmates.
Credit: Georgia Governor's Office of Student Achieve
Credit: Georgia Governor's Office of Student Achieve
• The chronic absenteeism rate for APS — students who miss three weeks or more of classes — was 35.4% in 2022-23, according to the state Report Card.
The lack of quality options helps to explain why, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Atlanta has the highest income inequality among large U.S. cities with white families having a median income of $83,722, three times higher than Black families’ median income of $28,355.
There’s also a financial rationale. The Atlanta Board of Education this week approved a budget for the 2024-25 school year with total expenditures of $1.8 billion. Are Atlanta families, the 50,000 students in the system and city taxpayers getting their money’s worth from that massive investment?
The new budget assumes enrollment of 52,416 even though 2023-24 enrollment was 49,675. APS allocates $230 million for the 10,788 students attending independent charter schools and $59 million for the 2,401 students who attend one of its “partner” schools run by independent nonprofits. Thus, after adjusting for actual enrollment at traditional public schools run by APS, and deducting the costs of charter/partner schools, APS is proposing to spend $1.5 billion to educate 36,486 students.
How does the Atlanta Board of Education justify giving 13,189 students the freedom to choose a charter or partner school while denying that same right to 36,486 students? Shouldn’t Atlanta’s taxpayers who fund APS through property taxes demand all families have the freedom to choose a school that delivers a much greater return on the investment of the taxpayers?
It is past time for low-income families to have the same freedom of education enjoyed by Atlanta’s middle- and upper-income families. Kemp should keep his promise to Atlanta’s low-income families by amending the Georgia Promise program to establish an Atlanta Promise Scholarship, allocating the $231 million in state revenues that APS expects to earn from the state funding formula.
Credit: Georgia Governor's Office of Student
Credit: Georgia Governor's Office of Student
He should set the amount of the scholarship at $20,000 per student, which would enable 11,500 students to use the fund to pay for an out-of-district public school, a private or charter school or a home school. If the parent chooses a school that charges less than $20,000, they get to roll over the funds to use in a later year.
Successful metro area private schools such as Westminster, Woodward, Marist and others, given the financial incentive, will accept students with Atlanta Promise Scholarships. High-quality local charter school operators such as Promise Built and Atlanta Classical will expand. Quality school operators from all over, such as Basis and Success Academy, could decide to come to Atlanta. Colleges and universities such as Morehouse, Spelman, Emory and Georgia Tech may decide to open their own K-12 schools.
What will be the impact of an Atlanta Promise on the district’s bottom line? First, the fiscal impact on APS will be positive, not negative. Assuming all the 11,500 scholarships are claimed, APS, using its 2025 budget as the guide, would still have around $1.27 billion to educate the 25,000 or so students who would still attend traditional public schools.
That would fulfill the promise Kemp made to all parents in Georgia in his 2024 State of the State address when he said: “I believe we have run out of ‘next years’ … At the end of the day, our primary consideration should be the future of that student. Our job is not to decide for each family, but to support them in making the best choice for their child.”
Glenn A. Delk is a retired attorney who has represented clients seeking expansion of school choice in Georgia.
About the Author
