A fixture in the leadership of Georgia’s House of Representatives will step down when her term ends this year, declining to run for re-election after nearly a quarter century in office.
Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton was first elected to the House in 2002. In 2010, her fellow representatives voted to make her the speaker pro-tempore then re-elected her to that post every term after. It made her second in command and the most powerful woman in a legislative body that has 180 members when all seats are occupied.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said he and his wife count Jones as a friend, and he described her as an accomplished leader.
“Jan’s 16-year tenure in House leadership reflects the abiding faith and admiration her colleagues have for her,” Burns said in a statement Thursday. “She will close her career in the General Assembly with a long record of accomplishments but also a long list of great friends, including me and Dayle.”
Jones served as speaker pro tem under both Burns and former Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, who died in 2022. She served briefly as speaker after his death, until the House selected Burns for that role in 2023.
Jones developed a reputation as a detail-oriented tactician who could get key bills passed into law. She said in a statement that she will miss her colleagues and the work, adding that she was “incredibly proud” of educational policies enacted during her tenure.
Under Gov. Brian Kemp, the General Assembly restored recessionary cutbacks to public school funding and raised teacher pay. Jones also led on expanded access to pre-kindergarten, bolstering charter schools and putting more tax dollars into private school education.
Jones shepherded Senate Bill 233, The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act, through the House in 2024. It established $6,500 a year in direct state funding for each K-12 student who switches from a low-performing public school to a private school or home school.
The measure established what is commonly known as a voucher program. It faced concerted opposition from public school advocates who were concerned about the shift of state funding from public to private education.
It was so controversial that it failed on the House floor in 2023, when some Republicans allied with the vast majority of Democrats who opposed it. But Jones rallied and got the measured passed in a close vote the next year.
Jones was known as an advocate for “parent choice” in education, a position that she said had been good for the economy and would inform her legacy.
“Conservative leadership has given Georgia the best business climate in the country,” she said, “and these investments in our workforce will keep us at the top for years to come.”
