Senate debates expanding Georgia Promise Scholarship to foster parents’ children; critics say foster children are excluded

Senator Dolezal brought Senate Bill 152 before the Georgia State Senate on Feb. 28, proposing to amend the Georgia Promise Scholarship Act so that biological or adopted children of individuals who have fostered children would qualify for Promise Scholarship accounts.

Dolezal opened discussion by thanking foster families and summarizing the bill: “Quite simply, what the bill does is allows the biological children and the adopted children of parents who have fostered children here in the state of Georgia to be eligible for the Georgia Promise scholarship,” he said. He told colleagues registration for the program opens the following day and said the program’s funds and administration are already in place.

Opponents mounted a lengthy dissent through the minority report, arguing the bill’s current wording rewards foster parents’ own children while excluding the foster children the parents care for. “This bill purports to reward foster care parents. But the sad reality is it…