On a day when both the House and the Senate held only brief sessions, all the buzz in the education world was centered around Governor Perdue's announcement that he will offer legislation intended to alter the state teacher salary schedule in favor of a method of providing "merit pay" for teachers.  Announced at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce annual "Eggs and Issues" breakfast, the Governor touted his proposal as one supported in a survey to which some 20,000 teachers responded.  It would be safe to note, however, that the aforementioned "buzz" around the Capitol revealed at least a sense of skepticism, as veteran educators who have marched down this road before know the potential pitfalls of such a proposal and can accurately anticipate a vigorous debate before it reaches any sort of final form.

The most intense action on the education front occurred on the afternoon of this day when House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) convened a two-hour meeting of his committee.  Bypassing the subcommittee process, the committee heard presentations, discussion, and questions on six bills that Chairman Coleman had originally planned to hurry through the process and send to the House floor in short order.  In the end, only four of those bills will likely be approved and voted out of committee when they reconvene on Thursday, January 14, and those four are as follows:

• HB 905 -- simply extends the sunset dates on the exceptional growth, low wealth, and advance funding programs in the state's school capital outlay program;
• HB 906 -- would extend, for three years, the date upon which teacher contracts must be issued from April 15 until May 15 [Editor's note:  Teacher groups were mildly opposed to this, but noted that they understood the pressures that school systems faced in waiting until the General Assembly passed a budget, usually quite late in the session.];
• HB 907 -- makes some minor changes to the eligibility requirements for schools to earn funds under the middle school program grant, said changes making it easier for schools to qualify; and
• HB 910 -- would eliminate the requirement for school systems to submit the annual gender equity report  [Editor's note:  It cannot be said that Thursday action on this bill is a certainty, as certain legislators clearly had reservations about it.].

Two bills on Chairman Coleman's "hurry up and approve" list ended up on a "slow down and take your time" one, and those were:

• HB 904 -- contemplates a newly-designed method of distributing equalization grant dollars in years when the grant is funded at anything less than full funding (true for this year and for the foreseeable future).  Discussion on this bill centered around the fact that it calls for a "Robin Hood" method of funding this grant, forwarding funds to some systems at the expense of others.  Discussion on alternate methods of handling this legislation will continue.
• HB 908 -- something of an "omnibus flexibility bill" seeking to provide local systems maximum flexibility during this current fiscal crisis in the areas of expenditure controls, class size, 20 additional days funding, and even the minimum teacher salary schedule.  It was clear from the discussion that certain legislators had heartburn over relinquishing to local systems what they viewed as hard-won state-level gains, even in the face of the fiscal disaster that local systems are facing.  Continued debate over the tenets of this bill is guaranteed to be spirited.

Wednesday, January 13, the third day of the 2010 session of the Georgia General Assembly, is to be highlighted by Governor Perdue's final State of the State address.  Usually included in this is his budget address, but word leaked out on this afternoon that he would not include that as part of his remarks on Wednesday.  Still to be determined is when he will actually release his budget proposals (constitutionally required by the fifth day of the legislative session), as the General Assembly, in a surprise move, has decided to adjourn after Thursday's fourth day of this session and not return until Monday, January 25.  Is it possible that the Governor's budget(s) will not be released until then?  Is that permissible?  Under any circumstances, this signals a long, long session, one that may well be delayed and delayed as budget issues dominate.  Stay tuned for more.....

Finally, several other pieces of legislation of interest to readers of this site have been filed, and they are as follows (click on the bill to read GSSA's summary and/or the original legislation):

HB 882 -- the first of several bills that may be offered, each attempting to tighten the state's bullying statutes

HB 886 and HB 909 -- changes to statutes dealing with sex offender registries and how they are handled

SB 298 -- first aid course required in Georgia schools

SB 299 -- an attempt to remove "zero tolerance" discipline policies in schools (and, in the courts)

SB 301 -- raises mandatory school attendance age to 17

More certain to come in the days ahead!!!