Abstract
Georgia's General Assembly passed the 1961 “Tuition Grants Act” as a method for avoiding school desegregation. In 1993, an Atlanta attorney attempted to use the Act to provide private school vouchers. This study compares and contrasts arguments for and against the Act, and public support for the Act, in 1961 and 1993, using Robinson's (2004) “fear-based” choice vs. “freedom-based” choice model, finding that: At both times, school choice politics were elite-based, with public opinion and broader political activism playing subordinate roles; pro-school choice elites had different goals in the two eras; and the Act was not implemented in either era.