The House and the Senate each tackled two-bill calendars on this twelfth day of the 2010 session of the Georgia General Assembly, and neither stayed in session even until noon. None of the four bills that passed were related to public education in Georgia.
Once again, as is relatively common during the early days of a session, the "action" was on the committee front, and on this day at least, was confined to the House of Representatives. Only two bills were to be considered during this early afternoon meeting: SB 84 and the latest, amended version of HB 908. Once again, the debate over SB 84 was lengthy and contentious, and there was a vigorous debate over various facets of the current version of the legislation. Much controversy remains over the nepotism provisions, and there is still major discomfort over passing legislation that could result in the removal of elected officials from office. In the end, Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth) permitted several amendments to be offered and voted on, and he promised to allow even more when the committee meets next Tuesday to once again try to vote on the bill.
HB 908, in its amended form, only provides for relief from certain expenditure controls for the next three years. After a brief tutorial on just what "expenditure controls" actually are and a request from the media specialists' organization to deny the relief, the concern of the committee turned to why this was needed for three years. A proposed amendment to shorten the period by a year failed, and the bill received a "do pass" vote from the committee by a 15-6 margin.
[Editor's note: One should not read into this report that this and other meetings of the House Education Committee are always contentious. Most bills are thoroughly debated. On this day, though, with very little discussion and on a split vote, the committee decided to hold an end of session luncheon rather than a dinner.]
In another location in the Capitol, the full Judiciary Non-Civil Committee tackled a once-again-amended version of HB 927, the school bullying bill authored by Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Dekalb). One of the changes made to this bill while it was at the subcommittee bill was to change a provision that the statute applied only to students in grades 6-12; the current version now has it as a K-12 bill. [Editor's note: This certainly complicates the issue of removing a student from a classroom or school, as many smaller districts have limited options for alternative placement of students who are alleged to have violated the provisions outlined in this legislation.] It was almost refreshing to hear representatives warn against overreacting to an isolated incident such as the one that precipitated this piece of legislation (and, others like it). In the end, no vote was taken on this bill, and it will be considered further at a later date.
The General Assembly will convene on Friday, February 5 for their thirteenth day of the 2010 session, and that day's "work" should be quite brief. |