The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement has redacted the second iteration of its Georgia Promise Scholarship eligible schools list.
This comes after the original list was taken down on Nov. 25 and after the controversial legislation was passed in April.
“I do not believe we’re going to have a lot of families that take that small scholarship,” Hall County School District (HCSD) Deputy Superintendent Kevin Bales said. “We know private school has always been an option, home school has always been an option, and yet the overwhelming majority of families in Hall County have chosen the Hall County School District.”
Bales attributed some of the lack of impact to school choice remaining open in HCSD, allowing parents and guardians to move their student to a school within the district regardless of attendance zoning as long as there is space.
State Sen. Steve Gooch (R-51) was a sponsor of the bill.
“I don’t think it will hurt public schools at all, because the money will follow the kid,” Gooch said. “So it shouldn’t bother the school systems financially, because they’re not going to have to spend the money to educate that child in that school any longer.”
The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement compiles the list for the bottom 25-percent performing schools, and their Director of Educator Leadership Laine Reichert said the timeline to get that list together was tight.
“There was an extremely tight window between when we received the data files and the date when the list had to be published,” Reichert said. “So we were not able to do the extra layers of validation of the calculations that we normally would have done.”
The senate bill allows eligible students and parents to receive $6,500 credits to go to a private school or homeschooling option if they live in an attendance zone of a public school in the bottom 25-percent of weighted College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) scores.
State Senate Bill 233 defines private school as any nonpublic “sectarian or nonsectarian” school, meaning religious schools could also qualify to intake students.
Students qualify for the program provided they are:
In an attendance zone for a school that is on the Promise Scholarship list
Has been a Georgia resident for at least one year (unless the parent is active military duty)
The student’s family income does not exceed 400-percent of the federal poverty level
The student is not the beneficiary of a scholarship or other benefit (including the Georgia Special Need Scholarship Act, which provides for Individualized Education Plan)
The student is not enrolled in a school operated by the Department of Juvenile Justice
A student will continue to be eligible to receive funds until they return to a public school, graduate high school, or reach 20-years-old (21 for special education students).
This means that if a student qualifies for the program and their public school they are zoned for gets back into the top 75-percent, they can still receive the funds until they graduate.
“I am aware of absolutely zero of those [phone calls],” Bales said when asked if parents have called about schools on the list.
He did add that principals and school leaders have called concerned about whether or not a high-performing student could potentially leave.
Reichert also clarified that the list would be updated annually and would be the average of the schools’ two most recent CCRPI scores.
“A lot of details have got to be worked out,” Bales said.
Although redacted, schools that made the list in AccessWDUN’s coverage area are as follows*:
*Keep in mind, these numbers are approximate as students in the attendance zones of these schools qualify, not just students attending these schools.
Hall County:
Chestatee High School
West Hall High School
Lanier College and Career Academy
West Hall Middle School
Chicopee Elementary School
Friendship Elementary School
Lanier Elementary School
Lyman Hall Elementary School
McEver Elementary School
Oakwood Elementary School
Tadmore Elementary School
Approximate students eligible: 10,650
Gainesville City Schools:
Centennial Arts Academy
Fair Street International Academy
Gainesville Exploration Academy
Gainesville Middle School East
Gainesville Middle School West
Approximate students eligible: 8,144 (all)
Gwinnett County:
Berkmar High School
Meadowcreek High School
Gwinnett Online Campus
International Transition Center
Radloff Middle School
Summerour Middle School
Alford Elementary
Baldwin Elementary
Britt Elementary School
Graves Elementary School
Lawrenceville Elementary School
Minor Elementary School
Nesbit Elementary School
Norcross Elementary School
Rockbridge Elementary School
Stripling Elementary School
Approximate students eligible: 31,345
Forsyth County:
Little Mill Middle School
Approximate students eligible: 3,893
Lumpkin County:
Lumpkin County Middle School
Approximate students eligible: 3,799 (all)
Habersham County:
Cornelia Elementary School
Approximate students eligible: 1,083
Banks County:
Banks County High School
Banks County Elementary School
Approximate students eligible: 2,880 (all)
Barrow County:
Auburn Elementary School
Statham Elementary School
Winder Elementary School
Approximate students eligible: 4,450
There were nine school districts that did not make the list at all, including Dawson, White, Union, Rabun, Towns, Stephens, Jackson, Jefferson City and Commerce City schools.
All told, out of the over 336,000 students in public schools in the northeast district, roughly 66,244 students are eligible as of the second list that has been redacted — roughly 19.7-percent of public school students in the area.
The bill passed the Georgia House of Representatives 91 to 82 and the Georgia Senate 33 to 23 on mostly partisan lines.
“I would say that the people that work in Georgia and pay taxes, they should be able to utilize the money they’re spending on tax … to be able to help educate their children,” Gooch said. “Whatever’s best for the child is what we should focus on and not worry about the bureaucracies getting the money.”
Every delegate in Hall County voted yes to the bill. Bales said that SB 233 has not been a point of emphasis with local legislators when coordinating with HCSD.
Reichert said they hope to get the list finalized this week.
