As expected, the business of the House and of the Senate took less than an hour on this early-session, fourth day of the 2012 session of the Georgia General Assembly.  Committee action began to crank up, though, and the House Education Committee led the parade.

In that afternoon meeting of the House Education Committee (all but one of the 27 committee members in attendance!), the first fruits of the labor of the Education Finance Study Commission began to emerge, as the full committee gave "do pass" recommendations to three key bills (which have just been summarized by GSSA staff):

• HB 705 -- This bill makes some changes to the infamous "65% rule," said changes adding other categories to those already eligible for counting toward the 65% test.  [Editor's note:  Representative Mike Dudgeon (R-Cumming), who is the chief sponsor of this bill, made it clear to the committee that the finance commission's recommendation had been to eliminate this useless expenditure test.  However, pushback from some key legislators led to the decision to simply revise it to include such things as pupil transportation, media centers, etc. in the definition of "instructional expenditures."]
• HB 706 -- This lengthy bill, also sponsored by Rep. Dudgeon, is another product of the Education Finance Study Commission and is meant to "clean up" a number of statutes in Title 20 that are outdated, obsolete, etc.
• HB 713 -- Another "clean up" bill of sorts, this legislation extends the deadlines mandated in last year's HB186 (the "career pathways" bill) so as to give DOE an additional year to complete all the requirements in that legislation.

As all of these bills received "do pass" recommendations, they now move to the House Rules Committee where they will be eligible to be placed on a future House rules calendar.  Stay tuned.

CORRECTION:  In the "Day Three Report from the Capitol," it was reported by this author that "no bonds for buses were included in the pupil transportation portion of the FY13 Budget."  While that statement is technically true, it is just as true that $25 million in bonds for school buses ARE INCLUDED IN THE BOND PACKAGE at the back of the budget document.  I regret the error.  In addition, the capital outlay programs are funded at the 100% entitlement level.