This was day thirty of the 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly, the infamous "crossover day" on which bills must pass their chamber of origin to be considered by the other chamber prior to the end of the session.  Even veteran General Assembly-watchers all have the same question:  Why in the world do we try to cram so much into one day rather than spread some of this debate out over some of those earlier days that ended early without much having been accomplished?  The only answer appears to be the human tendency toward procrastination, for there is no other reason for elected officials to want to stay together on a single day from early in the morning till late into the night arguing over legislation.

The Senate tackled a 30-bill calendar on this date, but only a few of those bills were ones that had been followed by education-watchers.  Emotions ran high in the Senate, though, as they chose to enter into the "embryonic stem cell research" fray by debating (and, ultimately passing) a bill dealing with that controversial subject.  It sort of made other bills pale in comparison, but the following education bills passed that body and now head to the House for their consideration:

• SB 250 - makes it unlawful to intentionally interfere with the operation of a public school bus
• SR 466 - establishes a performance-based principal certificate renewal design team
• SB 36 - provides for a code of ethics to govern school board members [Editor's note:  How many of these school board bills are gonna pass???]
• SB 231 - establishes the PROMISE III teacher's scholarship
• SB 160 - requires public schools to close on Veteran's Day  [Editor's note:  Even though this bill passed the Senate with only a single dissenting vote, its fate in the House is anything but certain, as an identical House bill has been held in the committee to which it was assigned.]

To the surprise of many, the much-ballyhooed, but very controversial voucher bill (SB 90) was omitted from the Senate debate calendar.  Though its contents could possibly be considered as material to be amended to another bill, it is likely that the fight over this legislation will be required to wait until the second year of the session in 2010.

While the Senate's 30-bill calendar seemed to be a busy one, the House of Representatives started with on containing 50 bills and, after finishing that, added one supplemental calendar with 17 more bills and a second one with 2 more!  Among those bills of interest to the education community which gained the approval of the House were the following:

• HB 243 - repeals the continuation of the state supplements for teachers earning the National Board Certificate, but "grandfathers" in those who currently hold the certificate or are in the pipeline to earn it.  [Editor's note:  This bill provoked much debate and, in the end, only passed the House by a 92-79 vote.]
• HB 455 - delays until May 15 of the 2008-09 school year the deadline for school systems to offer contracts to teachers
• HB 193 - changes the 180-day school year requirement to a requirement that students attend school for a number of hours equivalent to 180 days (enables four-day weeks or other configurations of days)

Also gaining House approval on this hectic day was HB 480, the much-debated bill seeking to end both sales and ad valorem taxation of motor vehicles in Georgia, said taxes to be replaced with a fee to be paid by the purchaser upon applying for a title to a vehicle in the amount of 7% of the vehicle's sale price ($2,000 cap).  No one, including those for or against the bill, could say definitively just what this trade-off will mean for state and local governments, as the bill obviously has an impact on future sales taxes, ad valorem taxes, etc. that cannot be anticipated or estimated.  However, it has been a long-standing goal of certain members of the House leadership to eliminate the ad valorem tax on vehicles (derisively referred to as the "birthday tax"), and it appears that they have taken a major step toward achieving that goal.

Thankfully, the General Assembly is in recess for a long weekend, and they will not return for their thirty-first day of the session until Tuesday, March 17.  At that time, the Senate will begin work on House bills, and the House will begin to labor over Senate bills.  The committee process will begin again in earnest, and we can all look forward to Day 40 (another day quite similar to Day 30!) on April 3.