School Choice: Constitutionality and Possibility in Georgia
School Choice: Constitutionality and Possibility in Georgia
24 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 587
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On September 13, 2006, Fayette County officials announced the arrest of two women on felony charges, punishable by five years in prison. Their crime-falsifying school enrollment forms in order to get their children out of Clayton County schools and into Fayette County schools. Other Georgia parents have been caught fraudulently using a P.O. Box at Mail Boxes Etc. in the Lenox Marketplace shopping center in Buckhead in an attempt to get their children into Sarah Smith Elementary School, which consistently ranks as one of the best in Georgia. In fact, the school thinks almost 10% of its students illegally live out of its district. With such desperate parents, Georgia legislators have followed a growing movement to provide publicly-funded school choice. However, reorganizing 100 years of educational service structured by residency has proven difficult-both politically and legally.
This Note examines the interplay between a publicly-funded school choice program in Georgia and controlling constitutional obligations and provides guidance for the inevitable expansion of school choice in Georgia. Part I of this Note serves as a brief overview of school choice. Part II addresses Georgia’s constitutional guarantee to provide adequate public education. Part III examines constitutional issues dealing with the inclusion of sectarian schools in a choice program, and Part IV analyzes the constitutionality of excluding sectarian schools.