As far as action in the chambers of the Georgia House and Senate, this thirty-second day of the 2012 session of the Georgia General Assembly resembled more closely the first two weeks of the session rather than the last two. The House calendar contained only a single bill, and the Senate's work schedule listed only four. None were of particular interest to education-watchers.
Committee action in both the House and the Senate reached fever pitch, though, as both senators and representatives scurried all over the Capitol while (1) serving as members of committees in their own chambers to see that each committee had the necessary quorum, and (2) rushing to attend committee meetings in the opposite chamber to present and defend their own bills that had successfully "crossed over" on day thirty.
Early on this afternoon, Senator Renee Untermann (R-Buford) convened the Senate Health and Human Services Committee before a packed room. The bill on the calendar of interest to the education community was HB 879 by Rep. Matt Ramsey (R-Peachtree City) and calling for schools to administer "diabetes management plans" according to the provisions of the bill. Interestingly, when questioned by Chairman Untermann as to whether the superintendents' association and/or the school boards association had discussed this legislation with him, Rep. Ramsey apparently had a lapse of memory and forgot about the conversation with our two associations during which the opinion was expressed that the basis for this bill (the handling of children with diabetes) was exactly the types of situations for which Section 504 plans are designed, thus rendering this bill unnecessary. The issue is intensely personal for Rep. Ramsey, though, so in the end, after approving an amendment to the bill which eliminated some concerns expressed by senators over the "field trip" provisions in the bill, it received the expected "do pass" recommendation from the committee and now moves to Senate Rules.
The House Education Committee also met on this afternoon to consider a series of Senate bills, but the meeting went badly awry when it became clear that the appropriate versions of bills were not in committee members' folders and thus, could not be intelligently or adequately discussed. A clearly frustrated Chairman Brooks Coleman called a sudden halt to the meeting, adjourned it, and promised other meetings over the next two days. With the aforementioned "scurrying around the Capitol" in full swing, it won't be easy to gather all the players over the coming days. Somehow, though, one suspects that it will get done.
Over the last few days, there has been little public discussion of the infamous HR 1162, the much-discussed (and, in some quarters, "much-cussed") proposal to amend the state's constitution so as to, in effect, reverse the decision made by the Supreme Court last Spring. Regular readers of this site will know that the bill now sits in the Senate, where it was tabled a few days ago. No attempt to remove it from the table and vote on it has been attempted to this point, a clear signal that the effort to gather the necessary votes has thus far been unsuccessful. While all of the behind-the-scenes discussions and arm-twisting have been going on, the more public discussions on this issue have been around what might be driving it. Is it purely a philosophy of educational choice? Is it a belief that charters are superior to traditional public schools? Is it money? Well, opinions are all over the place, and one supporter of public schools who is never short on opinions has offered an answer that makes a good bit of sense. Click here for that answer (and, as is usually the case with Dick Yarbrough, some good reading).
Day thirty-three is set for Wednesday, March 14. |