For Release:
January 26, 2019
Contact:
Verdaillia Turner
O: 404-315-0222
georgia@aftgeorgia.org
Georgia’s New Lieutenant Governor Asked To Support Evidenced Based Education Solutions, As Opposed To Education Solutions That Lead To Privatization and Segregation
It is unfortunate Lieutenant Governor Duncan saw fit to push for school voucher tax credits while visiting a private school this week. The Georgia Federation of Teachers (GFT) believes vouchers undercut public schools and diminish opportunities for students to learn. His pressing to increasing the voucher cap even further after the cap was raised to $100 million last year is a bitter pill to swallow. This is especially true after the last two Republican administrations did $8 billion in austerity cuts to education.
At the same time Duncan is boosting the idea of putting more public money into private schools, he also pushed for another kind of privatization by calling for an increase in charter schools. While charter schools take public money, they often circumvent the accountability required of other schools and become, essentially, private schools. Even the state Department of Education's own research agreed with the CREDO report and showed that on average charter schools performed no better than regular public schools and sometimes worse. It was the American Federation of Teachers that came up with the idea of charter schools in the 1980s until the idea was hijacked by corporate privatizers.
GFT believes that successful models such as community schools that do not cherry pick students and assist young people by providing wraparound services is a better alternative than the privatization of public schools.
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