Last week, a Georgia Democrat said in remarks on the state House floor that she is against school choice because she was able to afford to send her kids to private schools.
State Rep. Debbie Buckner (D) represents Junction City, Georgia. Last week, she claimed that her three children had a “patchwork” of education.
“But I never came to the state, I never went to an agency and said, ‘give me some money to pay my way.’ I went to work and I paid the way with my husband to put them [children] where they needed to be to achieve what they needed to achieve,” she said.
The state House narrowly passed the bill 91-82.
Here is @RepBuckner's vote against school choice after admitting she sent her kids to private school.
— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) March 14, 2024
It still passed 91 to 82, and one other Democrat voted in favor of the bill. pic.twitter.com/CuYDlHi3Iw
According to WRDW, the bill, known as The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, would give $6,500 vouchers to students attending public schools that score in the lowest 25 percent in the state.
Republican Rep. Mesha Mainor, who switched parties last year, did so in part because of the Democrats’ overwhelming opposition to school choice initiatives.
“In District 56 some of these schools have 2-3% reading and math proficiency, which means 97-98% can’t read or do math, but yet some of our colleagues want to tell you that it is okay,” Mainor said.
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Last year, Mainor told reporters that she angered her Democrat colleagues with her support for school choice, which Townhall covered.
"When I decided to stand up on behalf of disadvantaged children in support of school choice, my Democrat colleagues didn’t stand by me," Mainor told Fox News Digital. "They crucified me. When I decided to stand up in support of safe communities and refused to support efforts to defund the police, they didn’t back me. They abandoned me."
"For far too long, the Democrat Party has gotten away with using and abusing the black community," she continued. "For decades, the Democrat Party has received the support of more than 90 percent of the black community. And what do we have to show for it? I represent a solidly blue district in the city of Atlanta. This isn’t a political decision for me. It’s a moral one."
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