ATLANTA — Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns is leaning into the push to pass a voucher plan funding private school tuition and home schooling, looking to change the minds of fellow Republican skeptics.
Burns made what he said was his first-ever appearance at a House Education Committee meeting Wednesday. He urged the panel to advance a voucher plan that’s been rolled together with a number of other initiatives, in an apparent attempt to gain support. The committee approved Senate Bill 233 on a party-line vote, setting the stage for a vote on the House floor on Thursday.
“I’m upset that we can’t create even a bottom-level standard of quality for private schools,” said Stephen Owens, the education director at the liberal-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “Otherwise, this feels overly deferential to private schools, not kids.”
