Families with children at seven Clarke County public schools are eligible for private school subsidies under the Promise Act, a voucher program the Georgia legislature passed earlier this year.
The program offers families $6,500 vouchers for private school or home-schooling expenses if their children attend a public school where College and Career Readiness Performance Index scores are in the bottom 25% of schools statewide. In Clarke County, those schools are Gaines Elementary, Holston (formerly Alps Road) Elementary, Stroud Elementary, Whit Davis Elementary, Coile Middle, Hilsman Middle and Cedar Shoals High.
CCRPI is a comprehensive index involving standardized test scores that measure content mastery, closing achievement gaps and year-to-year progress, as well as other factors like attendance and graduation rates for high schools, used to evaluate school performance. The Promise Act rankings released by the state Department of Education last week are based on the 2023-2024 school year.
According to a CCSD news release, the district is working to improve CCRPI scores by introducing standardized curricula for literacy and math, and by addressing the needs of a transient population where children frequently move and change schools. “We look forward to tackling the challenges that remain for our students who are still recovering educationally from COVID-19,” Superintendent Robbie Hooker said. “We have an aggressive plan and look forward to sharing that plan—and the work ahead—with families and our community in the coming months.”
The Promise Act was controversial because it will take up to 1% of state funding away from public schools, many of which are already underfunded. In addition, critics say the $6,500 will not be enough for low-income families to pay for private school tuition, making it primarily a subsidy for middle- and upper-class families. Supporters—almost all of them Republicans—say it will give families at poorly performing schools a choice to pull their students out. The program will serve an estimated 21,000–22,000 families statewide.
CCRPI scores rose at 13 of CCSD’s 21 schools last year but remained below the state averages, according to data released by CCSD last week.
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