Long days, long nights to come as the Georgia General Assembly nears the (hopeful) end of their 2009 session.  This twenty-ninth day set that tone as the Senate tackled a 25-bill calendar while the House addressed one calendar with twenty-one bills and a second with ten.  All in all, since there were some bills on each chamber's calendar that generated "spirited" discussion, it made for a long day that did not end until well into the afternoon.

Of major interest to virtually all observers, education-watchers included, was the quick agreement by the membership of both chambers on their version of the FY09 Amended Budget.  Few could remember the conference committee negotiations moving so rapidly, but move they did, and the bill has been "immediately transmitted" to the Governor (a parliamentary procedure that will force him to act upon it quickly).  The "biggie" in the education budget is the inclusion by the House and Senate of approximately $145 million in monies from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 (ARRA, otherwise referred to as "stimulus funds").  It is not clear that the Governor will go along with this, as it has been said that he wishes to use all the stimulus funds in the FY2010 and FY2011 budgets.  Failure to use these funds in the FY2009 Amended Budget, though, will have the effect of causing school systems' "temporary austerity cuts" for this fiscal year to be four times what had been anticipated when budgets for this school year were crafted.  This fight appears to be far from over.

Bills of interest on the Senate calendar today included SB 44 (calls for local governmental agencies to give consideration to purchasing Georgia-made products), SB 184 (places some requirements on contractors to serve notice of commencement on a job, including school construction), SB 210 (seeks to make home-schooled students eligible for participation in the Georgia Governor's Honors Program), and SB 239 (makes some changes to the mandatory school attendance statutes).  All of these bills passed overwhelmingly and now cross over to the House of Representatives.

On the House side of things, only two of that chamber's thirty-one bills related to education, and both of those bills passed with virtually no opposition.  HB 484 relates to HOPE scholarships for children of military personnel, and HB 555 requires local school systems to make unused school facilities available to local charter schools (those approved by the local board).  These bills now head for the Senate for their consideration.

A couple of bills that had been thought to be dead for this session popped up again late on this afternoon.  HB 208 (calls for bilingual endorsement on high school diplomas) and HB 281 (allows students in virtual charter schools to participate in public school extracurricular activities, even on the basis of simply being enrolled in said virtual courses) passed through both a subcommittee and the full House Education Committee and can now be considered for placement on a House calendar.  The strange, strange workings of the Georgia General Assembly.....

Bills of interest to educators continue to be introduced, even though the focus these days is on bills that have already marched through the legislative process and might be considered by either of the full chambers.  Recently introduced were:

HB 719 - calls for a tax expenditure report to be prepared by the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget

SB 257 - allows employees of the Board of Regents to "switch" TRS options for retirement

SB 260 - would allow all full-time school system employees to join TRS

The General Assembly will be in recess on Wednesday, March 11, but will gather for a really long Day Thirty on Thursday, March 12.  That day is known as "crossover day," the day upon which any piece of legislation must gain the approval of its chamber of origin in order to "cross over" and be considered by the other chamber.  Of course, various and sundry (and, complicated) parliamentary maneuvers can keep almost anything alive, as it is said that nothing is ever "dead" in the Georgia General Assembly (For proof, see the earlier paragraph on HB208 and HB281.).