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Committee Hears School Choice Recommendations-Committee Member Subject of AJC Report
The Education Reform Commission (ERC) Expanding Educational Options for Georgia Families/School Choice Committee met this morning at the Board of Regents. Jamie Lord, a lobbyist representing the American Federation for Children, an organization dedicated to expanding school choice, presented school choice expansion recommendations to the committee such as expanding Georgia's special needs voucher program to include Section 504 students and to consider including students with a diagnosed special need but who do not have an IEP, ELL/Lawful Refugee students, children in military families, and foster children.
Dr. Charles Knapp, the chair of the ERC and the ERC committee on funding, attended the meeting as did Rep. Mike Glanton a School Choice ERC Committee member who also sits on the House Education Committee and the House Appropriations Committee on Education. Glanton was recently the subject of an AJC investigative report (<-insert hyperlink to posted PDF of AJC story that was paywalled) for alleged self-dealing due to his employment at Global Teachers Research and Resources, Inc. which contracts to bring in teachers from abroad to fill positions at Georgia traditional public and charter schools.
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GHEA and Johnson Ferry Christian Academy Make Recommendations
Mary Beth Morris from the Georgia Home Education Association presented to the committee. On its website, GHEA states that it serves as a "network of home education families and support groups dedicated to observing the Biblical commands for parents to train their children." Morris' comments focused on increasing home schoolers' access to higher education and to higher education entrance assessments like the PSAT.
A representative from Johnson Ferry Christian Academy suggested in her comments that the committee consider additional legal delineations between home school entities and Non-Traditional Educational Centers (NTEC'S). Another Georgia NTEC, TNT Academy, recently made headlines when its founder made controversial remarks at the school's graduation ceremony. Kimberly Maiocco from Johnson Ferry Christian shed more light on the distinction between home schooling and her NTEC, at which student attend classes for several days a week and also study independently at satellite centers.
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