PAGE Report From the Capitol

Day 9

House Passes Supplemental Budget

Living up to their promise to move at a snappy pace, the House passed the AFY 2014 Supplemental Budget this morning. The budget now moves to the Senate for consideration, and work continues on the FY 2015 Budget in the House.

Access the AFY 2014 Budget, including the differences between the House and Governor's recommendations HERE. Education begins on page 34.

GBPI Publishes Analysis of Proposed Ed Budget

The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute published its analysis of Governor Deal's proposed 2015 education budget today. GBPI reports that additional monies will help ease ongoing school budget cuts at the local level, but few districts will be able accomplish critical priorities of raising teacher salaries, decreasing class size, returning to a full school year, restoring programmatic cuts, and discontinuing furloughs.

10K TRAGIC Members - Deal Nods Towards Some Relief

A grassroots group fighting changes to Georgia's State Health Benefit Plan hit 10,000 members this week. Over at the AJC, Jim Galloway reports that Governor Deal may be walking back some of the controversial insurance changes. Read HERE.

Listening Session Takeaways: $, Common Core, Insurance, TKES

Legislative leaders published their official summary of last fall's legislative listening sessions. Highlights include concern regarding ongoing austerity reductions, Common Core, non-certified employee insurance, and the new teacher evaluation system (TKES). Read that summary HERE.

Read PAGE'S summary from the first listening session, including our survey of thousands of Georgia educators on a variety of education issues which PAGE presented at every listening session.

Margaret Ciccarelli - Director of Legislative Affairs mciccarelli@pageinc.org

Josh Stephens - Legislative Policy Analyst jstephens@pageinc.org

PAGE's core business is to provide professional learning for educators that will enhance professional competence and confidence, build leadership qualities and lead to higher academic achievement for students, while providing the best in membership, legislative and legal services and support