Day 30, the day by which all legislation must pass one chamber to remain viable, inspires a combination of fatigue, frustration, elation, anger, and relief among everyone working under the Gold Dome. Both the House and Senate worked late in the night. Freshman legislators sponsoring their first bills were gently and humorously needled by their colleagues, advocates socialized and lobbied furiously at the ropes in front of House and Senate chambers, and all involved consumed a lot of caffeine.

Lots of Action in the Senate

There was action on several high-profile education bills in the Senate today, including:

• A last-minute amendment to SB 469, a bill limiting payroll deduction for PAGE members and members of other educator organizations, exempted educator groups from the burdensome requirements. A special thanks to the senators who assisted PAGE and sponsored the amendment including Senators Balfour, Millar, Shafer, Bethel, McKoon, Gooch, and Golden. SB 469 now moves to the Senate; stakeholders must keep working to ensure that its payroll deduction provisions continue to exclude PAGE and other educator groups.  

• Though it appeared on the Senate calendar, Senators did not vote on SB 87, PAGE-opposed legislation which seeks to expand Georgia’s current school voucher program. The bill’s sponsor, Senator Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) tabled his own bill, probably because he knew he lacked enough support to pass it. The voucher bill was likely resurrected to encourage Senate Democrats to support HR 1162, the charter constitutional amendment. That strategy appears to have been unsuccessful.

• In an unexpected turn, the Senate voted down a standards-based grading bill, #SB 364~. Several of the groups pushing HR 1162 such as Michelle’s Rhee’s Students First advocated for SB 364, and no major education organizations lobbied against it, so many Gold Dome watchers were surprised by the bill’s failure on the Senate floor. See the Savannah Now’s account: http://m.savannahnow.com/latest-news/2012-03-07/ga-senate-rejects-telling-schools-how-issue-grades

House Continues to Send Mixed Messages on Charters

The House passed the FY 2013 budget which now goes to the Senate for changes. The House also passed HB 797, the enabling legislation to HR 1162. Though HB 797 and HR 1162 seek to expand funding for charter schools authorized by the state, the House also passed HB 651, which seeks to eliminate funding for local charter school systems. That bill was amended to grandfather-in current charter systems until their next charter reauthorization. Additionally, the House version of the budget discontinues funding for charter planning grants.

When legislators are asked why they are eliminating funding for charter schools that operate within local public school systems, the standard response is that the funding is becoming prohibitively expensive. Curiously, these same legislators continue to push for additional funds for state charter schools, some of which are managed by for-profit companies, who operate outside local public school systems. Legislators have not been able to articulate which state funds will be re-routed to pay for these state charter schools.     

Online voting records for HB 797 and HB 651 are not yet available. PAGE will make those records available when they are uploaded to the state website. 

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