Georgia follows Alabama- governor to sign landmark school choice legislation

WSJ editorial board praises the bill. Always a good day when teachers unions lose. This year has been the biggest year in American history for school choice movement. For decades, rural politicians funded by teachers unions have killed bill after bill, all over America. These politicians have either retired or lost their primaries to politicians who want to fix the problem.

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Sixteen Georgia House Republicans dealt school choice a setback a year ago, voting against education savings accounts, or ESAs, for students in poorly performing districts. This month the ESAs came back to life, imperfectly, but at least it’s a start.

The Georgia House voted 91-82 last week to pass the scholarships, which are worth $6,500 each. They can be used toward private school tuition and other education expenses by students in the worst-performing 25% of Georgia public schools. Eight of last year’s Republican “nays” flipped their votes. The Senate, which passed the bill last year, voted for it again on Wednesday, and it heads to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.

The success is thanks to Mr. Kemp getting over his seeming ambivalence from a year ago. He gave school choice top billing in his State of the State address, telling lawmakers the state had “run out of ‘next years.’” Last year his tepid public support came too late.

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One of the “yes” votes last year was Democratic Rep. Mesha Mainor. This year she voted yes as a Republican, having switched parties in part out of frustration at Democrats for keeping education options away from parents. “I loved the bill last year, I love it now,” she said, according to the Georgia Recorder. “It meets the needs of so many different families.”

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Regardless of your thoughts on school choice, you have to love to see special interest groups (teachers unions) fail in their bribery scheme.