By Rebecca Gaunt

Eight schools in the Cobb County School District are included on the Georgia Office of Student Achievement’s list of schools ranked as performing in the bottom 25% across Georgia. 

The distinction makes those students potentially eligible for the state’s new voucher program.

They are: Argyle Elementary in Smyrna, City View Elementary in Mableton, Compton Elementary in Powder Springs, Green Acres Elementary in Smyrna, Mableton Elementary in Mableton, Riverside Elementary in Mableton, Russell Elementary in Smyrna, and Osborne High School in Marietta.

All of the Cobb schools on the list are designated as Title 1 recipients of supplementary financial assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) due to significant enrollment by low-income families.

Fulton County had eight schools make the list, DeKalb County School District had 45, Gwinnett 16, and Atlanta Public Schools 31.

No schools from the Marietta City School District qualified.

School vouchers have proved to be a contentious topic that divides those who see it as key to giving parents a choice and others who see it as a tool to defund public schools.

Read the full list here: Promise Act (SB233) List of Schools | The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement

The Georgia Promise Scholarship, established through Senate Bill 233 and signed into law in 2024, provides $6,500 per eligible student to put toward private school tuition, home study, tutoring, study materials, and transportation under specific state guidelines.

To be eligible, students must live in the attendance zone of a listed school, and have either been enrolled the previous school year or be a rising kindergartener. The application portal will open in early 2025.

Cobb Superintendent Chris Ragsdale has previously voiced his opposition to the diversion of public school funds via vouchers and included the matter on the district’s list of legislative priorities, which were approved by the school board, for the past two years.

School board member Becky Sayler, whose post includes Russell and Osborne, has penned two opinion pieces for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding her concerns about SB 233.

She told the Courier, “The state is identifying schools that are underperforming, an outcome certainly exacerbated by years of Georgia underfunding education. Instead of taking public money away from public schools, Georgia could choose to make meaningful changes in the Quality Basic Education funding formula. Our state is one of only six that does not have a specific poverty weight to help economically insecure children. When I look at the schools on this list, I see an overlap with students who are economically disadvantaged.”

Sayler urged legislators to come up with solutions that help all students, not just “those who can afford to pay the difference between a voucher and a private school education and transport their children to school.”

Four of the elementary schools on the list are in Tre’ Hutchins post. 

“$6,500 is just enough to undermine a public school, but not enough to pay for a private school. While I support school choice and a parent’s right to choose what’s the best academic environment for their child, I also know what it looks like to have very limited choices which keeps students in underperforming, underfunded, under-resourced learning environments,” he said.

Sayler added that the data the state uses does not tell the whole story about a school.

“I know that people use school choice to get into the Post 2 schools on that list because of their unique and rigorous programs,” she said.