This seventh day of the 2010 session of the Georgia General Assembly was "full of sound and fury," especially if one spent the afternoon in Room 132 of the Capitol.  That is where a packed room (with plenty of hangers-on in the hallway) continued the spirited debate over the merits of HB615, the bill intended by its author (and others) to greatly expand the places in our state where licensed gun owners can carry their concealed weapons (including schools).  Emotions are high on both sides of that issue, and it will likely take several more meetings of this committee before any type of final bill emerges for a potential vote by the House of Representatives.  Educators who are interested in this issue should certainly weigh in with their own representatives, and particularly so if those representatives happen to be members of the committee that is dealing with this "hot button" issue.  That committee is the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, and you can see the members' names by clicking here.

Chairman Terry England (R-Winder) convened his K-12 Education Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee on this afternoon to hear testimony on the FY2010 Amended Budget.  Agency heads who spoke included those from DECAL, the Governor's Office of Student Achievement, and the Employee's Retirement System.  During the public comment period, representatives from both GAE and PAGE spoke.  It appears to be becoming more apparent to all that the funding crisis is much greater than any had thought, and the potential remedies are limited (some by reality, some by politics).

As has been noted in earlier stories, legislation of interest to educators continues to drop.  Amazingly, bills calling for the now-annual "sales tax holidays" have been submitted again (Never mind the hit these cause to state and local treasuries!), and it will surprise few if they don't pass almost unanimously.  For those interested in glancing at them, they are HB 951, HB 952, and HB 953.

Other bills to pop up are:

HB 977 -- would prohibit salary increases for superintendents and other administrators during years when teacher furloughs are implemented, unless certain conditions are met

HB 980 -- allows school board members to be in the bail bond business

HB 995 -- would set a statewide school start date

The House Education Committee will meet on Thursday to consider SB 84 (the latest version of the Governor's bill seeking to grant the chief executive the ability to remove locally-elected school board members from office) and HB 908 (the bill seeking to grant flexibility to local systems as they attempt to navigate the rough waters created by the budget tsunami).  Stay tuned for future reports on how the debate on these bills turns out.