Albany-Leesburg Area Classical Conversations to hold info session during School Choice Week

ALBANY — The Albany-Leesburg Area Classical Conversations group invites Albany and Leesburg residents to join an information meeting scheduled to coincide with National School Choice Week (NSCW) 2017. The event will take place Thursday at 6:30 p.m.at Providence Church in Albany.

Held every January, National School Choice Week shines a spotlight on effective education options for every child. Independently planned by a diverse coalition of individuals, schools, and organizations, NSCW features thousands of special events across the country.

The week is a nonpartisan and nonpolitical public awareness effort to make parents aware of the many schooling options available in Dougherty and Lee counties, public charter schools, private schools and the homeschool community.

“To me, school choice represents the freedom for parents to be able to choose the public, private or homeschool which they consider best for their children,” Albany-Leesburg event organizer Heather Pitts said.

Other NSCW events in Georgia include the Georgia Coalition School Choice Rally at Bright Futures Academy and the Leadership Breakfast at the Georgian Club, both in Atlanta. Scores of public, private, and homeschool communities across the state have scheduled informational meetings and public events to raise awareness of the school choice options available to all Georgia students.

“Most people don’t realize that we in Georgia are blessed with many educational option other states don’t have,” Pitts said.

A recent poll conducted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found strong support for school choice statewide, with 61 percent of polled registered voters saying they favor choice, despite assertions it could undercut public school funding.

The AJC also reported that among the group supporting more choice, there is also strong support for vouchers, which have been controversial in education policy. School vouchers can be redeemed at private schools to subsidize tuition.

Georgia teachers’ groups are lining up firmly against school choice, and are absolutely anti-vouchers. The Georgia Association of Educators has issued statements indicating that organization’s belief that any move toward choice or vouchers will drain money from the state’s already underfunded public schools.

“If we are really being honest, the week isn’t really about choice. It is unfortunately about transferring public money, responsibility, transparency to the private sector,” GAE President Sid Chapman said. “The voters in Georgia recently rejected these notions in the overwhelming defeat of the OSD amendment. Whatever the silver bullet du jour happens to be —unaccountable charters, vouchers, education savings accounts (ESAs) or opportunity scholarships—when you pull back the covers this is about transferring public money to the private sector without accountability or transparency and at the expense of our children’s education.”

Gov. Nathan Deal has education reform at the top of his 2017 legislative session agenda and something concerning choice could arise from the proposals presented by his Education Reform Commission.