On this penultimate day of the 2013 session of the Georgia General Assembly, a number of bills that had been closely followed by education-watchers received approval.  Some now head to the Governor for his consideration, while a few still must go through at least one more step in the legislative process before heading to Governor Deal's desk.

 

Approved by the House on this day were:

 

HB 115, allowing the State Board of Education to deliberate in executive session when considering the fate of a local school board that had run afoul of the accreditation process.  This bill heads to the Governor.

 

HB 131, mandating that dual enrollment courses receive the same consideration as IB and AP courses when the Georgia Student Finance Commission calculates students' eligibility for the HOPE scholarship.  This one also heads to the Governor.

 

HB 283, the ever-expanding bill that originally started out as a "Title 20 clean-up" bill but has now become the place where everything that could possibly be added (well, not everything) has been added.  The bill has grown to over 30 pages in length, and the latest addition is an altered version of SB 243, the Governor's bill seeking to add a bit of transparency to the statute governing the much-discussed Tax Credit Scholarship (aka, "voucher") program.  The latest version of that bill does add the aforementioed transparency, but it also raises the donation limit for the program to $65 million.  (Editor's note:  Some discussion was held about the possibility of adding the contents of HB 123, the "Parent Trigger" bill to this one.  That did not happen on this day.)  This bill must go back to the Senate for their agreement (but, hopefully no more additions) before it goes to the Governor.

 

The Senate started the day with a 66-bill calendar (knowing, of course, that they would never get to all of them, which they certainly did not).  Education bills approved by the upper chamber on this day included:

 

HB 70, the expansion of the Special Needs Scholarship (aka, "voucher") program which would allow parents of special needs students with severe medical conditions to request a waiver of the "one year in public school" attendance requirement to be eligible for the voucher.  The Senate made changes to this bill, so it returns to the House for their agreement/disagreement.

 

HB 241, the much-ballyhooed teacher and leader evaluation bill, which had been the subject of a virtual love fest every time it was heard before either a Senate or House committee.  This bill won approval by a vote of 52-0 and, since no changes had been made during the bill's march through the Senate committee process, it goes directly to Governor Deal.

 

HB 284, the "Return to Play Act of 2013" to which no changes were made, passed the Senate by a vote of 49-3 and heads to the Governor.

 

A couple of additonal bills were left hanging when the Senate adjourned for the day (HB 337, allowing physicians to write prescriptions for epi-pens directly to schools, and HB 211, giving school systems a break on the taxes on fuel).  Those bills may or may not be addressed by the Senate on Day 40, which is set for Thursday, March 28.