By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
ssatterthwaite@thecitizennews.com

Local reaction to voucher overtures varies according to the source.

Public school officials are cautious; only one private school administrator could be described as approving.

Debbie Condon, recently reelected chairman of the Fayette County Board of Education, said recently that the board has not discussed any voucher or early HOPE scholarship plans, but is waiting to hear more about what is being proposed in the current General Assembly.

She expressed doubt, however, that Fayette would benefit from any “equalization of funding,” as these plans have been called.

“There are so many different kinds of vouchers,” she said. “We've been more concerned with the funding part of it and how that will affect us. Fayette County stands to lose a great deal of money. [A study] commission has recommended that equalization grants be provided to only 75 percent of the school systems in Georgia. We would be among the 45 [districts] excluded.

“Right now we get about $3 million of that. It would require elimination of remedial programs in elementary and middle schools,” she continued, “and would reduce central office positions from six to two funded by the state. Now we get $268 per student for facilities operations from the state — that's maintenance and utilities — and that would push up to $300 per pupil. But the most serious threat would be the withdrawal of the $3 million equalization grant.”

Condon explained that the state bases the amount of funding returned to a county by determining income averages. “Some small rural counties wouldn't have the tax base the more wealthy counties do. There's a formula — say, for example, we sent $12 million to the state, we'd get back, say, $3 million because we were among the more affluent.”

She added that the defeat of the special sales tax for schools in last year's referendum could result in a punitive response by the state: “Do we keep pumping money into systems that vote down SPLOST and won't pay their own way?” the state board might reason.

County school superintendent Dr. John DeCotis is also cautious about the subject of vouchers because there is not yet a clear definition.

“There are so many different kinds,” he said. “Several states have experimented with vouchers that would allow students to go from one public school to another, or to a non-public setting. If we'd accept vouchers, we would not have the space if students from another system were allowed into ours.”

Transfers already occur within the district, he noted, when space permits and a compelling reason exists.

DeCotis said he believes that charter schools offer a good alternative because they are “still in public accountability,” while private schools are not. Complicating the issue would be requirements to protect taxpayers from fraud.

“If you give money to a school that discriminates by gender, or against the disabled, how do you protect those students who are trying to get in and are turned down,” he continued, “or ensure that the constitution is being followed?

“I'm certainly open to the idea of giving vouchers, but it is a delicate balancing act.”

The sole voice of enthusiasm came from Sallie McQuaid, new principal at Our Lady of Victory Catholic School near Tyrone, who calls herself a “proponent of vouchers”:

“[Vouchers] would be the most wonderful, fantastic thing in the world,” she said. “Education across the board is getting very, very expensive. The biggest bill on the tax bill will be the school bill. Schools are having a tough time even here in Fayette County — all those trailers and new schools needed to accommodate families.

“It would be a marvelous thing if parents would choose the school they want their children to go to,” she added. “I'd like to direct some of my tax dollars in that way. It's working marvelously well in some of the Northern states.”

She also approves another development in the public sector, charter schools. “Certainly charter schools are another alternative; parents are looking closely at education of their children. To that, what can I say but hooray, hooray?”

Her counterpart at St. Paul Lutheran Church School in Peachtree City is Gordon Stuckert. His was the only renunciation based on the origin of the funding.

“Would we favor vouchers?” he reflected. “I would have to look at [the plan]. But for me it would depend on the source, such as gambling.”

Asked whether that meant he objected to lottery-based revenues, Stuckert said he does, but added that he is not the only one who would make a decision for a school operated by a congregation. “That's personal, that's me,” he said.

Another large segment of Fayette County children are being home schooled. Ken Patterson, director of the Georgia Home Education Association based in Fayetteville, said his organization favors another approach.

“We would rather have a tax credit than a voucher,” he wrote in an e-mail responding to a request for home schoolers' input. “With any government handout, there are or will be strings attached. For the home schooler, the vouchers would have to be limited to school materials - equipment, tutors or tuition.”

Fair's fair, however. “If vouchers become available for government and private school families, then they must be available to home school families,” he said.