Day 13 Day thirteen saw the full House pass HB
62. This bill will allow active duty
military stationed in Georgia to waive certain qualifications for the
scholarship program for special needs students. The bill will now move on to the Senate for hearings. For a complete copy of the bill that passed
and GSSA staff analysis of the bill or other educational bills that we are monitoring
this session, follow the link to the GSSA
2015-2016 Session tracking page The House Education Committee voted to move three bills on
to the Rules Committee during its meeting today. HB164
will extended the suspension of the PLU requirements for three years. The new rules and regulations are not yet ready
from the PSC. HB
198 Suicide Prevention Training bill. Also known as the Jason Flatt Act. Training will be required of all school personnel on suicide prevention. The DOE is working on developing the training. HB
100 will change the eligibility dates for entry into kindergarten. The qualifying dates for kindergarten in 2017
will be August 1st and in 2018 will change to July 1st. The House Education Committee also had a hearing only for HB
243, the Education Saving Account Act. This bill would allow parents to sign up to receive the state funds for
their students and apply the funds to a list for private school enrollment
uses. This is a voucher bill that takes
state dollars and moves them to private schools. After discussion and questions by the
committee and public comment in opposition to this bill, including GSSA, the bill
was assigned to a subcommittee. No vote
was taken. A joint Senate and House Education Committee meeting was
held today for a presentation by a select panel from Tennessee and New Orleans
to share their stories of their Opportinity Schools. Not until after the committees adjourned was the
Senate bill regarding Opportunity
Schools introduced. We will have more
information on this bill after review and analysis. Check the GSSA twitter account for links to
press coverage and comments regarding the Opportunity Schools bill. The fuel tax discussions continue in the halls. At this time there is not a House
Transportation Committee scheduled. We
will continue to work on this critical issue. The House and Senate will meet on Thursday, February 12th
for their 14th day in session. The House Appropriations Education Subcommittee will meet today at 2
p.m. HOUSE TRANSPORTATION MEETS AT 2 p.m. Today The legislators will be in adjournment this Friday and
Monday. Try to meet with any of your
delegation to thank them for their work, especially on the educational
budgets. It is also important that they
hear from you regarding the House Transportation prosed fuel tax bill HB170. School systems do not need to lose very
important funding as a result of this bill. |