The 16^th legislative day was a quiet one in the General Assembly as only a handful of bills (four to be exact) were taken up in either chamber. In the Senate, neither of the two bills adopted were educational bills; and, it was the same story in the House, with two bills passed unrelated to public education. The legislative news for today comes from the House Appropriations Committee, which met bright and early this morning and gave a “do pass” to the 2010 Amended Budget (HB 947). This midterm budget was passed with 17 million dollars added back to the equalization grant line, as reported in yesterday’s (Day 15) report.  The budget will lie on the table for 24 hours and is scheduled to be on the House floor on Thursday.  It is still on track for passage in the Senate late next week.  Copies of the House version of the mid-term budget will be available late Thursday, and we will provide a link to the document as part of the Day Seventeen report.

Also this morning, the House Science and Technology Committee gave a "do pass" recommendation to HB 281.  This  bill allows students enrolled as a virtual student in grades six through twelve (simply enrolled in a single course, mind you!) to participate in any and all extracurricular activities offered or conducted by the school in which they would be enrolled by virtue of their residence “in the same manner as any student currently attending the school as a public school student.” Yes, you read that correctly: This could become Georgia’s version of Florida’s “Tebow Law”.  If you are experiencing a sense of Déjà Vu, you are correct; this is a bill you have seen before (two times to be exact) which was sponsored by Rep. Len Walker ( 107^th) and was rejected by the House Education Committee during each of the two previous sessions.  This year, representative Walker took a different approach and bypassed the House Education Committee by convincing the leadership to assign this bill to the Science and Technology Committee (chaired by Representative Amos Amerson of Dahlonega).  This one will move to House Rules in the near future and bears watching (and, commenting upon) by public school educators across the state.

Also on this afternoon, the House Judicidary Non-Civil committee gave a “do pass”  to HB 927, one version of an anti-bullying bill.  GSSA will summarize the latest version of this bill as soon as it is available.

Early Thursday morning, the Senate Education and Youth Committee will meet to take up the Governor's legislation (SB 386) seeking merit pay for Georgia teachers. The addition of this bill to the committee agenda came as a bit of a surprise when it was posted late this afternoon.  The original agenda was to include a continued discussion that began yesterday on Senator Tommy Williams' school grading bill (SB 352). [Editor's note:  Apparently, the discussion of that bill will be held for another day.]  Also on this agenda, the committee will supposedly take up SB 298 (a bill that would require first aid instruction in school health curricula sponsored by Valencia Seay) and SB 132 (the "Dropout Deterrent Act” sponsored by Senator Vincent Fort). This Senate committee's pace has been much slower this year, so it is difficult to anticipate just what may emerge as "approved" legislation from this committee meeting.  Stay tuned for further developments.