G.I. Bill for soldiers' kids

More choice and competition would be an improvement-- at least for consumers-- and this is a clever but appropriate link-up to the G.I. Bill for soldiers...

From Susan Meyers in The School Choice Advocate...

Five days a week, Sgt. Joseph Reissig reports to his assignment in Covington, Ga., at a U.S. Army recruiting station to sign up future defenders of American freedom. To thank him for his service, Georgia lawmakers in 2010 considered offering Reissig and the children of other Georgia military personnel a school voucher to transfer to the private school of their choice....

Reissig added that when military parents are deployed, it is not only tough on the spouse left behind but it is just as hard on the children. Providing a voucher to a private school would improve the lives of many military families—and their children’s academic lives, he said. “In private schools there are smaller classes, and teachers can keep a better eye on a child—especially if they are sad because someone is away,” Reissig said.

Such a proposal made it through the Senate Education Committee, and was poised to move through the Georgia General Assembly, but unfortunately it stalled before receiving a hearing on the Senate floor...While the state did not move forward with the Early HOPE Scholarship this year, all indicators point to an introduction again next year...

The Early HOPE Scholarship program would have provided a voucher equivalent to the state portion of per-pupil funding for each child, or about $4,000 annually....

And this on a related reform for special ed students:

The breakthrough came in 2007 when former state Sen. Eric Johnson, now Republican candidate for governor, sponsored the state’s Special Needs Scholarship program. The legislation passed the General Assembly—winning by just one vote in the House when the Speaker cast the deciding vote.

The program has grown so much that during the last school year; almost 1,600 pupils used the program. The average scholarship, according to the Georgia Department of Education, was $6,331.

A survey by the Center for an Educated Georgia released last summer found immense parent satisfaction among those who used the voucher....