As this somewhat delayed Day Forty Report from the Capitol is being composed, the halls under the Gold Dome are quiet.  The last of session's political speeches have been given, the gavels have banged to signal the end of the two-year term, and now the citizens of the state get to sit back and consider what laws have been passed to improve the quality of life for them.  Educators will certainly take a look at their own part of the world and make judgments about how their profession has been affected, and those judgments will undoubtedly carry over into the summer primaries and the November elections for statewide and local offices.  The fun just never stops.

One of the key areas that will continue to be scrutinized is the budget, as that key document tells more about where education (and, other government services) stand on the "importance" scale than any individual bill that might or might not have passed.  Capitol-watchers remember well the State of State address given early in his first term by Governor Perdue (that delivered during a recession, also) in which he said that one could tell what was important to Georgia families by looking at their checkbooks.  The legislative corollary to that, of course, is that one can also tell what is important to our state and its policy-makers by looking at the state budget.  Thus, opinions will be formed for better or for worse when one learns that the education portion of the FY2011 Budget (yet to be signed by the Governor, but almost certain to undergo little change before he does) contains the following:

• The reinstatement of RESA's using a combination of funding sources (and, including a plan to "fold" the functions of ETC's into those RESA's);
• The elimination of funds associated with a variety of functions (e.g., Spelling Bee, Science Olympiad, Academic Decathlon) along with the reduction of monies related to the state's testing program (1st and 2nd grade CRCT's plus 3rd and 5th grade writing assessments);
• Additional cuts to Communities in Schools;
• An exercise in what can only be described as "legislative math" in which both the House and the Senate recommend adding 1,700 additional slots to the Georgia Virtual School, provide zero funds to do that, but use budget language stating that "existing resources" should be used to accomplish this feat;
• Further reduced, but did not totally eliminate, funds for the Georgia Youth Science and Technology program (did the same for the National Science Center Foundation);
• Provided funds to maintain the popular Governor's Honors Program as a four-week activity;
• Agreed with the Governor to totally eliminate funding for supplements for teachers who had earned National Board certification;
• Eliminated the "alternative sparsity" grant, but kept the basic sparsity grants [Editor's note:  Each of these grants totals about $3 million, but the basic sparsity grant is spread over only 21 small systems while the "alternative" sparsity grant consists of small grants distributed to over 170 systems.];
• Kept the funds for the Migrant Education program;
• Cut the pupil transportation program by an additional $5 million (always a popular target when money is thought to be needed elsewhere;
• Kept the Local Five Mill Share dollar amount constant, even though it represents a portion of QBE that is greater than the 20% cap mandated by law;
• Continued the practice of administering "austerity cuts" in previously-announced amounts exceeding $1 billion (offset by a $1 million "add back" to this line along with a small amount of ARRA funding);
• Cut the School Improvement line at DOE by some $2.5 million;
• Agreed with the Governor to cut the school nurse program by $1.6 million; and,
• Decided to provide funds for PSAT only to students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches and to pay for two AP exams per year for students in that same category.

There was some positive budget news in all of this, as the General Assembly did provide money for the enrollment growth that has occurred in some systems, funded capital outlay at 100%, agreed with the Governor to provide $25 million in bonds to buy school buses (plus an additional $25 million included in the FY2010 Amended Budget for the same purpose), AND included $10.5 million to reimburse local governments for revenues lost due to the constitutionally-approved Forest Land Protection Act.

Along with the budget, a number of education-related bills were also approved by lawmakers on the last night.  It is during that process that observers can only hope that last-minute amendments don't get added that allow legislators to accomplish goals that they could not attain through the "normal" committee process.  For the most part, that didn't happen on this particular sine die night.  Gaining approval were the following:

• HB 907, changing the definition of "middle school" so as to allow school systems to qualify for the middle school grant even if all of grades 6, 7, and 8 are not located on the same campus;  [Editor's note:  This bill was amended to include a requirement for additional notification of parents by school systems of the availability of the Special Needs Voucher.]
• HB 936, which allows bus replacement funds to be used to "refurbish" existing buses (amended to include the rebirth of a long-dormant state agency so as to make it more likely that school systems can take advantage of some of the federal tax-exempt bond programs);
• HB 923, permitting a longer period of time for educators to complete leadership degrees and still be paid for them;
• HB 1079, which requires the PSC to accept payment for educators' certification-related expenses to be paid by debit or credit card (though one must wonder how badly this will be needed, since HB 1307, which suspends recertification requirements for five years, also passed!);
• HB 400, Representative Fran Millar's long-sought-after BRIDGE bill (amended heavily to exclude some of the more expensive requirements);
• SB 250, amended to include the contents of HB 927, the bullying bill;
• HB 1013, requiring local boards of education to make annual SPLOST reports in the same manner as cities and counties; and,
• SB 239, mandating that parents enroll their children in school in a timely manner after moving into a school district.

June 8 is the "magic date" by which the Governor must sign, veto, or allow these and other bills to become law without his signature.  Some will surely fall victim to the veto pen, but history indicates that most will not.  Just more to watch as the election season proceeds.....