On February 18, Governor Perdue released his long awaited proposals on education. Two separate bills HB 515 and HB 516 encompass his plan. The announcement came at a news conference held in his office at the Capitol, which PAGE attended. Prior to the news conference the governor, along with State School Superintendent Kathy Cox and State Board of Education Chair Wanda Barrs, conducted a telephone conference with the state�s local school superintendents.

�All three leaders made general comments, the governor reviewed the highlights of his proposed legislation and then he answered a few questions posed by the local superintendents on the line. Governor Perdue calls his proposed legislation STARS -- Students + Teachers + Accountability + Respect = Success.�

Highlights of the STARS legislation include:

Reinstatement of fair dismissal for teachers hired after July 1, 2000. Teachers who have signed their fourth contract would, under the terms of this bill, have a right to a local board hearing the results of which can be appealed by the teacher to the Professional Standards Commission.

Moving the Office of Education Accountability (OEA) and the State Data and Research Center, charged with developing the student information system to the Department of Education. The OEA name is changed to Office of Student Achievement.

Assignment of letter grades to schools (as part of Georgia's accountability system) will be delayed until 2004, allowing time for the state's accountability system to be more closely aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act. However, federal reporting requirements will remain unchanged.

Class size reductions will be delayed by one year. The bill also allows systems to use "system average class size" beginning in 2004-05.

Changes in the school council portions of the law providing systems with added flexibility in choosing the size of the council (minimum of seven members still required), reducing monthly meetings to four per year as a minimum, and having the council select its own chairman.