The frenetic activity of last Thursday's "crossover day" gave way to a more measured pace on this thirty-first day of the 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly.  Neither the House nor the Senate tackled a calendar of any significant length, as the focus of both chambers shifts to their committees, where bills from "the other chamber" will now be presented and debated.

The slower pace of the day did allow both the House and Senate to pause long enough to welcome and honor a number of visitors, and among those honorees was the 2009 Georgia and national Superintendent of the Year for 2009, Atlanta's Beverly Hall.  Invited to appear before both chambers, Dr. Hall was her usual eloquent self as she spread the credit for her recognition to her board, her staff, her community, and her students.  Lawmakers honored her with a standing ovation.

Most capitol-watchers were surprised to see Governor Perdue take such quick action on the FY2009 Amended Budget; he signed it into law last Friday.  Of interest to most was whether or not the Homeowner's Tax Relief Grants would be funded (They were.) and whether he would agree with the House and Senate to include some $145 million in federal stimulus funds to mitigate the impact of increased, mid-year austerity cuts to education (He did, but not without including some language in his budget message chastising the General Assembly for including those federal funds!).  Just as surprising was his decision to go along with the House and Senate and include $1.7 million in funds for charter systems ($100 extra per student in those systems).  There were other minor adjustments to the mid-year budget, but they paled in comparison to the larger items just mentioned.

On this day, education-watchers got their first look at what may be ahead for the FY2010 Budget, as the K-12 Education Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee announced and approved their recommendations for this portion of the overall budget.  [Editor's note:  These recommendations will almost certainly be approved by the full House of Representatives on Thursday of this week, after which they will move to the Senate which, apparently, has a few "differences of opinion" on some key issues.]  Included in the subcommittee's recommendations were the following:

• Restoration of $30 million to support school nurses (but, cut by 3% to be consistent with other cuts in the budget);
• Money to pay teachers who hold the National Board certificate;
• Restoration of both RESA and ETTC funds as separate line items in the budget (also subject to the 3% cut);
• Restoration of the 75%-25% employer-employee split on health insurance premiums (avoids a rise in premiums for employees);
• The elimination of teacher gift cards ($11 million);
• Funds to charter systems ($1.7 million);
• The addition of $1.135 million to add 2,000 slots to the Georgia Virtual School;
• Agreement with the Governor to cut $112 million in equalization grant funds  [Editor's note:  The discussion over restoring at least some of these funds is apparently very much alive as the budget moves to the Senate.];
• The use of $400 million in federal stimulus funds to mitigate the negative impact of the continuing austerity cuts and cover some of the aforementioned "adds" (The Governor had recommended using only $319 million of those funds in the FY2010 Budget.); and,
• The elimination of the Governor's recommended $10 million in bonded money for additional low-wealth capital outlay projects.

As in the FY2009 Amended Budget, there were some smaller items (e.g., elimination of $100,000 from the line item that funded canning plants, etc.), but the larger items are listed above.  The real bombshell was dropped at the end of the subcommittee meeting, however, when Chairman Ed Lindsey (R-Atlanta) floated the idea of furloughing teachers for six teacher work days in FY2010, said furlough to save $198 million to be applied against further austerity cuts or cuts to equalization grants.  He urged groups representing teachers, administrators, school boards and others to work together to come to an agreement over this "hot button" issue and promised that, should those groups come to consensus, he would personally "lead the charge" to effect this major, short-term change.  Ah, the workings of the Georgia General Assembly.....

Day thirty-two is set for Wednesday, March 18, with both chambers again addressing short calendars.  Committee activity picks up, and both the Senate and the House will have a number of those meetings as they gear up for the final days of the session.