This thirty-seventh day of the 2009 session of the Georgia General Assembly started with an early-morning meeting of the Senate Education and Youth Committee, chaired by Senator Dan Weber (R-Dunwoody).  As predicted by observers, the committee took up a substitute version of HB 251, said substitute adding to mandated school transfer options within districts the language from SB 90 dealing with student transfers across district lines.  While it was acknowledged by Senator Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) that this "across district lines" language does not trump current transfer arrangements (i.e., systems that currently charge tuition to out-of-district students could continue to do so if they wished, and systems that charge no tuition could also continue that practice), the language does provide that systems choosing to accept out-of-district transfer students under the provisions of this particular legislation would receive local money from the transferring student's home school district (said local money "disguised" as a reduction from the home district's QBE earnings added to the receiving district's QBE earnings).  GSSA and others objected to this proposal (which is identical to the funding scheme proposed in last year's Charter Commission legislation) and participated in a spirited discussion with the committee over other possible options.  Senator Johnson agreed to "continue the conversation" about this issue, but the bill ultimately received a "do pass" recommendation and moves to the Senate Rules Committee to be considered for placement on a Senate calendar next week.  [Editor's note:  Since the original version of this bill calling only for within-system transfers has already passed the House of Representatives, the amended version would not go back to the House Education Committee should it clear the Senate.  It would simply go back to the full House for their agreement or disagreement.  In other words, this heavily-amended substitute would not be subjected to the intense scrutiny for which the House Education Committee has come to be known and would simply have to be agreed to by a simple majority of the House of Representatives to find itself on the way to the Governor's desk.  There appears to be interest on the House side, should the bill return, to alter the language further and possibly amend it on the floor of the House.  Stay tuned.]

In their regular session on this day, the House of Representatives did not take up any of the bills that education-watchers had been following.  The Senate, as part of their 18-bill calendar, passed the following:

• HB 280, providing for additional compensation for math and science teachers; and,
• HB 555, requiring local boards of education to "make available" to charter schools unused school facilities.

Even now, in the midst of the end-of-session pressure, new bills continue to drop.  Introduced over the last few days are:

• HB 758, a "pie-in-the-sky" piece of legislation calling for state-funded pilot projects extending the school year (referred to as "pie-in-the-sky" because the cost is prohibitive);
• SB 217, a bill calling for school board policies related to dating violence;
• SB 278, a "graduate in three years" bill; and,
• SR 649, another school accreditation bill from a Clayton County legislator.

Rules calendars for Monday, March 30 (the 38^th legislative day) have not been set as of the time of this posting, but those who are regular readers of this site are keenly aware that the three legislative days set for next week will be action-packed!