The lead story in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on a complaint that the Southern Education Foundation is filing with the Georgia Department of Revenue.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-education/education-group-claims-tax-credit-program-is-widel/nT8BL/

As President of Georgia GOAL Scholarship Program, Inc. (“GOAL”), here are my observations:

1. This is the second time the Southern Education Foundation ("SEF") has called for the legislature to consider ending the Georgia Education Expense Credit program. It seems SEF has made this a top priority. We have been unable to locate any evidence that SEF, a long-time supporter of public schools, has ever supported tuition tax credit or opportunity scholarship programs that would provide low and middle income children with the chance to attend the private schools of their parents' choice.
    
2. To the best of our knowledge, no member of the majority party in the Georgia General Assembly has called for diluting or ending the program. Instead, they are excited about the program and want to expand it, along with making some small changes to improve the law.
    
3. From GOAL’s perspective, SEF's assertion that the Georgia Education Expense Credit is a "costly state program" is false. Because our average scholarship is less than half of the per pupil expenditure by state and local school systems, GOAL (the state's largest student scholarship organization) is saving the taxpayers money. It is also unlikely that SEF has considered the long-term cost savings to the state associated with enabling children from low and middle income families to enroll in private schools in elementary and middle school, thereby avoiding becoming victims of the unacceptably high drop-out rate experienced in many of Georgia's public schools.
    
4. Instead of highlighting five years of amazing results and life-changing stories associated with this program, AJC reporters seem focused on attempting to create a public firestorm over a few SSOs (out of 38 operating in Georgia) who, to an unknown extent, are engaging in a scholarship award practice (donors indirectly securing scholarships for their children) that the legislature has prohibited.
    
5. Since its inception, GOAL has operated in compliance with all applicable laws and, in some cases, goes beyond the requirements of the law to ensure transparency and accountability to the public. GOAL works very closely with the Georgia Department of Revenue and closely follows the DOR rules for the administration of the Georgia Education Expense Credit.
    
6. By investing the necessary time and resources to operate this program in an ethical and transparent manner, GOAL and its participating schools have gone a long way toward protecting the Georgia Education Expense Credit and justifying its expansion. We encourage those private schools who are working with SSOs that are operating in a non-transparent manner to hold their SSOs (and themselves) to a higher standard.