This thirty-ninth day of the 2012 session of the Georgia General Assembly, close to the merciful end, was another one that started early and ended late. The old adage that one doesn't want to watch either sausage or laws being made always holds true during these last days of any session. And, one need look no further than the number of bills on the calendars of the two bodies to see that they have saved way, way too much for the last days (69 bills on the Senate calendar, over 30 bills on FOUR House calendars). To say the least, the pace of activity was hectic.
As expected, both chambers agreed before lunch on the conference committee report on the FY2013 Budget. Also as expected, there were no changes from the versions agreed to the previous day. Highlights/lowlights of the education portion of the budget were included in GSSA's Day Thirty-eight Report from the Capitol, and readers who like to delve into the details of the budget can click here to see the tracking document (which, in the opinion of this author, gives the clearest look at the progress of and changes to the budget as it moved through the process). The education portion begins on page 43. The FY13 Budget now goes to the Governor for his consideration.
Both the House and the Senate had education bills on their calendars for this day, and while most of the votes were routine passes, there were two surprises. First, the routines. The House passed:
- SB 153, Senator Chip Rogers' bill requiring that, if a teacher is released as part of a reduction-in-force, and the release is not based on subpar performance, the teacher's record should reflect such. [Editor's note: The sponsor of this bill must have forgotten his insistence and passage of legislation prohibiting school systems from using seniority as a primary reason for reducing staff.]
- SB 403 (changes to the school nurse program requirements and funding) and SB 404 (changes to staff development processes and funding), both having emerged as recommendations from the Education Finance Study Commission.
- An amended version of HB 879, mandating procedures by which schools must train staff and administer "diabetes management plans," and to which the House agreed after getting it back from the Senate.
All four of these bills go to the Governor for his consideration and likely signature.
The "surprise" on the House side came when SB 410 was called for a vote. With no warning, the vote on the bill was 74 for and 82 against (note that 24 representatives did not cast a vote). The unexepected result set off the expected flurry of activity by some members of the House leadership (An immediate vote to "reconsider" was successsful, followed by a motion to table the bill.) and intense lobbying by representatives of Students First, Michelle Rhee's advocacy group. Some indications, though mixed, were that the Governor's office was involved in drumming up votes, but since the Governor was out of town, it had to be staff involved in that effort. When leadership is confident that enough "yes" votes can be counted, this bill will be pulled from the table and, most likely, passed.
On the Senate side, the following bills of interest to the education community were passed:
- HB 397, the massive re-write of the state's open meetings and open records statutes.
- HB 896, the enabling legislation for HR 1150, the proposed constitutional amendment that would require that the division of ESPLOST revenues between county and independent school districts be done on an FTE basis only (amended to omit the requirement for school systems with fewer than 3,000 FTE's). There were then further developments in this saga.
Those aforementioned "further developments" occurred later in the evening when HR 1150 came up for its scheduled vote. Needing a 2/3 majority to pass and go onto the November ballot, the "yes" votes totalled only 33, leaving the majority short by three votes. Therefore, the "scurrying" in the Senate began, and the result was a rare and hastily-called meeting of the Rules Committee from which emerged a supplemental calendar (No one could remember the Senate having done this, although it is routine practice in the House.) with a single bill on it: HR 1150. At the end of the night, this resolution was tabled along with 20 other bills at the end of the original calendar, and the arm-twisting will occur over the next day prior to Thursday, Day Forty.
That final day, Day Forty, is scheduled for Thursday, March 29.
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