In her recent legislative report, Representative Barbara Massey Reece explained why she voted against a measure in the Georgia House that would provide private school vouchers for some students.

Reece said that a majority of House members voted to approve HB 181, concerning taxpayer-funded vouchers for private school tuition for special needs students. Under current law, a student must be enrolled in public school for one year and be classified as “special needs” to meet requirements for the private school scholarship.

The proposal would remove the one-year requirement in certain medical cases when parents feel the public school cannot provide for the student’s needs, including cases of diabetes and epilepsy, for example.

Reece said, "I voted against the bill because our public schools are required to provide for students’ special needs. I believe our public schools can care for medically fragile children as well or better than private schools, especially now that we have school nurses. During my teaching career, I had students with diabetes and those who experienced epileptic seizures. HB 181 appears to be an effort to expand the use of public tax money for private school tuition." .