Georgia lawmakers latest results for education

Our legislature has concluded their session for this year. Often, this is a relief to me, as I see many of their actions as a bit frightening (witness the relaxing of concealed weapons law that nearly passed!) Our State PTA does an excellent job lobbying, tracking and reporting on legislation relating to education. (Your PTA dues in action!) They say that although the session has ended, "It may be several days, mid week next, before the House Clerk and the Secretary of the Senate will have final information available."  So, until the governor signs off, these bills are not officially laws.

Some highlights—

From the information in the oral reports, the Education budget has $500 million plus added to the austerity cut, bringing that total hit to about $1.4 billion in next year’s budget.

• School nurse funding was cut an additional $750,000 (total $2.3M) on top of the cuts proposed by the House ($1.6M)
• Governor’s Honors Program, agreed with House version to reduce program to four weeks this summer but eliminated all funding for the summer of 2011
• Restored funding for CRCT testing in 1st and 2nd grade and for ITBS and PSATs

HB 23-Drivers causing an accident while using specified wireless devices shall have stronger penalties than those not using such devices. Drivers under age 18 cannot use a cell phone nor text message while driving. Exceptions are made for driver emergencies, reporting an accident or criminal activity, or using while parked. Penalty is 1 point on the drivers license and/or a fine of $150.

SB 308, the gun bill, was passed in the House in a much different form from the Senate. Hopefully, it will never get passed. It does away with the 1000 foot school safety zone. So, guns can be banned from the building, but not the school parking lot.

The teacher groups were calling out the troops to oppose the governor’s plan to have a uniform evaluation instrument and to include student achievement scores as a part of the evaluation. This provision had been added to SB 521 which deals with more funding for the high school if a student takes a post secondary course on the high school campus. To preserve the funding proposal, the author amended it to a teacher scholarship bill that passed both chambers in different forms in 2009 but was never reconciled. Whether the evaluation instrument requirement will survive in SB 521 or be amended to another bill remains to be seen.

SB 340: Every year, local school systems and private schools must transmit to GA School Finance Commission an electronic transcript of courses and grades for each freshman, sophomore and junior high school student, grading scales used in the school, state required test scores for the purpose of calculating the GPA for potential HOPE scholarships. Currently, only the seniors’ records must be sent. Now you’ll know if you’re child is eligible for HOPE.

SB 496: Creates a new HOPE college opportunity grant for students from low income families if money appropriated from the lottery. Has all the requirements of the current HOPE scholarship except for the B average. About 97% of those receiving PELL grants have family incomes of less than $40,000; 80% have family incomes of less than $30,000. GA Student Finance Commission will administer the program, and use the PELL grant process as a basis for evaluating students. As with the other HOPE, students must be a graduate from a GA high school and a legal resident for 12 months, or if not a graduate from a GA high school, they must be a resident for 24 months.

HB 1013 - Local school boards must publish an annual summary of their SPLOST finances showing each project, original estimated costs, current estimated costs, amount expended last year and in the current year.

HB 400- Fran Millar's BRIDGE, Building Resourceful Individuals to Develop Georgia’s Economy Act finally appears to have passed into law. Individual Graduation Plan is required for all students, created in grade 8 and reviewed annually with the student in high school. The career education program needs to be offered only in low performing schools which graduate less than 60% and receive a state funded grant. If student still does not earn a high school diploma, any industry certification the student earns will be considered in a requested waiver to the SBOE for a high school diploma. This version is permissive on local schools, a good thing in a year when neither the state nor the local schools have discretionary funds for new programs. The State Board of Education has adopted new curriculum and graduation requirements that remove the distinction between college preparatory and career readiness diplomas, increase the requirements for math and science for all students and have very few electives slots available for the student. The Individual Graduation Plan will be a lot of work but may be very beneficial in tracking every student’s achievement in attaining graduation credits.

Another bill sponsored by Millar, Kathy Ashe and others, along with Dunwoody rep, Dan Weber in the Senate, seems to have passed into law allows a "cluster", consisting of a high school and it's feeder schools, to apply for charter status if approved by voters in a referendum. This could be a game-changer for DeKalb schools as clusters such as Dunwoody, Tucker and others could effectively insulate themselves somewhat from the board and administration. Do you think that creating charter clusters would be beneficial? What do you think will be the benefits and/or ill effects of this law?  Here it is:

SB457 - "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 20-2-2064 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to approval or denial of charter petitions, so as to provide that a local board of education may act on a petition for a conversion charter school for a high school cluster if approved by a majority of the qualified voters in a referendum; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."

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Many thanks to the Georgia PTA for their hard work and excellent reporting.

For additional information, go to Capitol Watch on the Georgia PTA website: www.ciclt.net/gapta

Karen Hallacy
GA PTA
2nd Vice President

Levitas Bill Looked At Employees, New State Law Doesn’t

By Tom Doolittle

There are many differences between the DeKalb school board ethics legislation proposed by Northlake/Tucker State Representative Kevin Levitas and statewide SB 84, which passed in the General Assembly on March 8. In fact, a detailed review evinces action that is nearly “apples and oranges”. The statewide bill is for standardizing school board “governance”, essentially regulating behavior and roles. Although conflicts of interest are prohibited, they are broadly defined. However, what might interest most DeKalb citizens that have followed media reports is that the bill says nothing about school system employees, such as superintendents. The state bill also does not mandate county-specific ethics commissions, as Levitas does for DeKalb.

Generally, the state bill specifies additional qualifications and training for school board members, clarification of their roles and responsibilities, a statewide conflicts-of-interest policy, and allowing the state to temporarily intervene when a system is failing.

Levitas’ proposal is a “transparency” bill, not broad rules defining the role of school board members. Starkly different from the state bill, Levitas bill emphasizes disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, emphasizes publication and comment periods, but allows the school board to decide whether they should be disallowed where regulating high-level employees. However, like the state act, school board member (in contrast to complaints about employed officials) would the province of a new ethics board.

Levitas, reflecting on the fate of DCSS ethics, commented, “I am optimistic that it will work in DeKalb, but I remain concerned that any non-criminal ethics violations can only be addressed by Board itself, rather than by an independent body… school employees should be covered as well…”

The Levitas proposal, which would have had to be signed by a majority of the DeKalb legislative delegation before moving to a General Assembly vote, is being given no further consideration this year. Before the statewide bill was passed, State Representative Mike Jacobs said that the statewide bill included many of Levitas’ provisions and he was concerned about “singling out DeKalb”. Fran Millar said he would vote “yes” for both of the bills—“I’ll sign (to move the local bill to a vote in the full legislature) it anyway—everybody should have a code of ethics for God’s sake.” Both Millar and Jacobs thought regulating school system employees would be a good idea, but did not seem to consider it a deal breaker if not included in the statewide bill.

Although the Levitas bill is entitled “The DeKalb School Board Transparency Act”, the language states that it “provide(s) for sanctions on appointed officers and employees of the school system for violations.” The sanctions would be meted out by the school board, not an ethics commission. The ethics commission is only charged with regulating school board members. “If the commission determines from clear and convincing evidence presented during the hearing that the accused board member committed the offense of which he or she is accused, the commission shall issue written findings and shall censure or reprimand the board member or order the removal of the board member from office.”

The substantive differences between the statewide and Levitas’ bill include:
(1) Does not establish county school system ethics commissions;
(2) Requires local ethics codes be established and provides minimum standards for codes;
(3) Makes allowance for and determines conditions for intervention by the Governor’s office;
(4) Is not as specific with respect to conflicts of interest;
(5) Is not primarily disclosure and transparency legislation with respect to conflicts of interest.

Regarding the effect that his legislation would have on employees in a position to hire relatives and steer contracts to friends or misdirect funds, Levitas said, “it is premature to comment on the situations involving Ms. Pope or Dr. Lewis, but should the evidence prove the existence of criminal and/or ethical lapses, it would, in my opinion, strengthen the argument that ethics laws and boards should reach employees as well as elected officials.”

Parents, Vets, Others to Speak Out Against Abusive Military Recruiting at Hearing Wednesday

For those of you who do not want your children recruited by the military while at school, there is new legislation currently under consideration in the Georgia Legislature to place safeguards against questionable recruiting tactics.

Tim Franzen, of the American Friends Service Committee, sent out the following information regarding a gathering at the Capitol on Wednesday to support the resolution.

Parents, veterans and others plan to tell their stories of abusive military recruiting in Georgia high schools at a hearing of the Georgia Senate Veterans, Military and Homeland Security Committee at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 10 in room 310, Coverdell Legislative Office Building, 18 Capitol Square SW.

The committee is considering Senate Resolution 955, which urges the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia school systems to:

• cease all programs and activities designed to recruit children under the age of 17, as required by U.S. ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Rights of the Child in 2002;
• require written parental consent for participation of children 17 and older in military-related programs and activities; and
• provide students and parents with exemption forms which would prevent schools from disclosing students’ records to recruiters, as required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Christopher Raissi is a former Marine recruiter. “Recruiters are trained to work everyone in a high school, from freshmen to seniors,” he plans to tell the senators. “The schools don’t give any notification to the parents about dissemination of students’ personal information to recruiters. If parents ignore their phone calls, recruiters are trained to track down every kid on the list, either at school or at home. I think this resolution is very reasonable.”

Susan Keith of Decatur will tell the committee how her son Martin, when he was a 10th grader at Decatur High School, was deluged with glossy brochures from recruiters. “They were offering him free sunglasses, duffel bags, T-shirts – all paid for with taxpayer money, of course.”

“These stories are just the tip of a very large iceberg,” says Tim Franzen of the American Friends Service Committee. “Increased pressure to recruit during wartime has pushed recruiters to use deceptive and aggressive tactics with vulnerable children who see few prospects in this bleak economy. These resolutions attempt to ensure that parents’ and students’ rights are respected.”

A companion resolution, H.R.1219, has been introduced in the Georgia House.

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Many of you may recall that DeKalb County School System attempted to start a dedicated military academy. Due to a poor choice of location, along with a lack of organization and community outcry, the military decided not to act on the plan.

Georgians Need Summers

After all the DCSS drama, here's something new to get your take on: Does the school year start WAY too early in Georgia? If you know any heating and air conditioning professionals, ask them about the strain and expense of cooling an older school building in early August. Take a look below, and give your take. And whether you agree or disagree with Lane Holt of Georgians Need Summers, she's a great example of how one school parent really can make a difference, and make school system administrators and elected board of education members stop and re-examine.

Dear Parents,

Within the last few weeks, Rep. Matt Dollar (R-Cobb) sponsored HB1097, a later school start date bill which would require local school boards to adopt a calendar "that in no event shall commence the first day of instruction of a school year prior to the third full week of August".

Among the bill’s co-sponsors are Rep. Edward Lindsey (R-Atlanta), the House majority whip; Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), chair of Economic Development & Tourism; Rep. Joe Wilkinson (R-Fulton), chair of Ethics; & Rep. Don Parsons (R-east Cobb), chairman of Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee.

While research shows us the school calendar configuration does not impact academic performance, it does show a poorly configured school calendar can and does increase cooling costs and operational costs for school districts. Knowing school districts have a finite amount of taxpayer dollars to spend educating our children, particularly in these tough economic times, reason tells us when cooling costs and operational costs are decreased, more money will be available for teacher salaries and academic programming such as small group tutoring.

In Alabama, a study released by Save Alabama Summers estimated the state loses $26 million for every August day school is in session.

According to a Nov. 17, 2002, Tulsa World article, "Tulsa (Okla.) Public Schools saved nearly $500,000 by delaying the start of school until after Labor Day, the districts latest utility bills show." (The district previously had a school start date of Aug. 19.) Subsequent newspaper reports showed the later school start date had no impact on test scores. A district spokesperson said "state test scores stayed the same." He add ed that the school calendar didn't seem to make a difference academically.

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts estimated in her September 2004 special report "Saving Summer: Lessons Learned" that August school days were costing the state's schools a cumulative $2.9 million a day in increased school utilities. She also estimated each extra vacation day a school district added to the calendar cost $15.5 million statewide.

Knowing the calendar configuration does not impact academic success, but does take valuable financial resources away from our students academic needs and our teachers, eliminating August school days just makes sense. Imagine the money Georgia counties would have to put into educating our children simply by starting school three weeks later. With the furlough of GA teachers and the cutting of salaries and basic necessities of education, each and every tax dollar to fund education is precious. Yet more and more counties in GA are approving extended school calendars, like balanced calendars, which are far more costly.

Let's do all we can to make the very best use of each and every education dollar. On Monday, HB 1097 will go before the House Education Committee. Please e-mail the sub-committee members below right away and state your support for HB 1097, later school start dates and smarter use of education dollars. Remember to also copy your own representative on your e-mail.

To find your representative and e-mail address go to Congress.org, enter your zip code where indicated on the home page and your state and federal elected officials will pop you. By clicking each will be able to access all contact information or you may e-mail them directly through the website.

Thanks you for your help!

Lane Holt
Georgians Need Summers

House Education Committee - Academic Achievement Sub-Committee
	David Casas - Chair david.casas@house.ga.gov academic dean - (R - Gwinnett)
	Amy Carter - Vice Chair/Secretary amy.carter@house.ga.gov teacher - (D- Lowndes)
	Kathy Ashe kathyashe56@mindspring.com (D-Fulton)
	Tommy Benton tommy.benton@house.ga.gov retired teacher (R - part of Barrow, part of Hall, and part of Jackson counties)
	Tom Dickson tom.dickson@house.ga.gov retired educator (part of Catoosa, part of Murray, and part of Whitfield counties)
	Melvin Everson mjeverson@bellsouth.net minister (R-Gwinnett)
	Penny Houston penny.houston@house.ga.gov (R - part of Berrien, part of Colquitt, and Cook Counties)
	Jan Jones jan.jones@house.ga.gov (R-Fulton)
	Darryl Jordan darryl.jordan@house.ga.gov (D - part of Clayton and part of Fayette Counties)
	Mike Keown mike@mikekeown.com minister/residential contractor (R - part of Grady and part of Thomas Counties)
	Edward Lindsey edward.lindsey@house.ga.gov attorney (R - Fulton)
	Howard Maxwell howard.maxwell@house.ga.gov insurance (R - part of Haralson and part of Paulding counties)
	Fran Millar fran.millar@wellsfargo.com insurance broker (R - Dekalb)
	Randy Nix randy.nix@house.ga.gov financial sercives (R- part of Carroll, part of Heard, and part of Troup counties)
	Barbara Massey Reece barbara.reece@house.ga.gov retired teacher (D- Chattooga and part of Floyd counties)
	Bobby Reese bobby.reese@house.ga.gov real estate broker (R - Gwinnett)
	Ed Setzler ed.setzler@house.ga.gov engineering manager (R- Cobb)
	"Coach" Williams ernest.williams@house.ga.gov teacher (D-Dekalb)

Save our schools from No Child Left Behind

Reprinted from the website, Control Congress.
Posted by John Konop on Monday, January 25th, 2010

Our high schools are facing skyrocketing drop out rates, declining test scores, and limited tax revenue (because of the recession). No Child Left Behind’s one-size-fits-all education model, with its unfunded mandates from the state and federal government, has been a massive failure by any measurement.

Georgia has unfortunately followed No Child Left Behind’s lead and established a one-track-fits-all philosophy, which forces all students into a college-bound curriculum. The result: students with an aptitude for vocational/tech curriculum are demoralized (and dropping out in greater numbers) and college-bound students are not challenged by an increasingly watered-down curriculum aimed at accommodating everyone (including students who would be better served by a vocational/tech curriculum).

A common sense approach

The solution to these problems requires only common sense and familiarity with an already proven approach. For example, Macon, GA, has developed a multi-track (college-bound and vocational/tech) system based on each student’s aptitudes. By putting vocational students and college bound students on different tracks, the school has realized amazing results.

From Macon.com: “…the immediate benefits from the career academy include lower dropout rates, higher graduation rates, and a more skilled labor pool in the county, [school administrator Carpenter] said. The Newnan school’s web site states the county’s dropout rate has fallen by half since it opened, and the graduation rate for students in dual enrollment programs is 98 percent.”

HB-215, the "Graduating Everyone Matters Act"

Georgia State Representative Steve Davis has proposed a bipartisan bill (HB-215) to promote this multi-track concept. The bill will provide separate tracks for high school students (a college-bound track and a vocational/tech track) using joint enrollment programs with local colleges and technical schools to support honors and vocational programs.

HB-215 would 1) increase graduation rates, 2) provide our local economy with work-ready students who will increase tax revenues, and 3) decrease the money governments spend on welfare and crime. It will also lower the overall cost of education by better utilizing college and technical school resources, many of which have surplus capacity.

Act now

Please contact the new Speaker of the House David Ralston, who promised to put Georgia’s kids before lobbyist interests. Hold him accountable by demanding that he bring HB-215 to a vote. And please forward this e-mail to your friends who care about the quality of Georgia schools.

E-MAIL AND OR CALL!

david.ralston@house.ga.gov
404.656.5020

Georgia Education 2010: No money

From Maureen Downey's AJC blog, "Get Schooled"

I think this is a terrific post by Maureen. The intro goes like this:

Education 2010: No money. Zip. Nada. None. Go fish.
January 24, 2010, Maureen Downey

I was at the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education program for education writers most of Friday. Here is the message of the day in a single line:

THERE IS NO MONEY. NONE. NOT EVEN A DIME IN THE COUCH CUSHIONS.

Among the presenters: Kathy Cox, state school superintendent, Erin Hames, education policy director for the governor, Alan Essig of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute and Herb Garrett of the Georgia Superintendents Association. The teacher of the year was there as were many state people and representatives of the state’s education groups. Without tax increases, Georgia schools will most certainly take considerable hits in the next two years. How deep is the financial hole at the state level? So deep, said Essig, that even wiping out 20 state agencies and the legislative branch and firing the 13,000 employees in those agencies wouldn’t plug it.

Click the "Get Schooled" link above to read Maureen's whole post at the AJC. We really do need to keep our eyes on what the state is up to. It's pretty scary for Georgia's schools.

They're back! The Georgia legislature is back in session...

Let's see what our legislators are up to regarding education.

Have you read SB 90 lately? Check it out - here's the overview:

"A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, so as to provide the option for parents to enroll their child in another school within the local school system, a school in another local school system, or in a private school under certain conditions; to provide for definitions; to provide for the amount of scholarship and method of payments; to provide for rules and regulations; to provide for limited liability; to provide for an annual report on the program; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date and applicability; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."

To simplify, this law would provide scholarships for current public school students to attend any school in the state, public or private.

STATUS: Recommitted to Senate Education and Youth Committee on 1/11/10

Another education-related bill to watch is HB 908 which reads, "To amend Article 6 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the "Quality Basic Education Act," so as to temporarily suspend certain laws and requirements relating to expenditure controls, minimum direct classroom expenditures, maximum class size, additional days of instruction, and salary schedules; to provide for statutory construction; to provide for automatic repeal of such suspension; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

And, SB 307 provides a "teacher's bill of rights" of sorts. The overview states, "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, so as to enact a bill of rights for Georgia teachers; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."

STATUS: Read second time by the House and referred to the House Education Committee on 1/13/10.

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Let's keep an eye on these bills as they progress through this legislative session.

New State Policy Deadline Looming

The Georgia legislature passed and the governor signed a new law requiring school systems to allow transfers within districts to flow freely. An addition to HB 251, part of the Quality Basic Education Act, it states,

Beginning in school year 2009-2010, the parent of a student enrolled in a public elementary or secondary school in this state may elect to enroll such student in a public school that is located within the school system in which the student resides other than the one to which the student has been assigned by the local board of education if such school has classroom space available after its assigned students have been enrolled. The parent shall assume the responsibility and cost of transportation of the student to and from the school.

Additionally, the bill requires school systems to set a written policy as to how they plan to implement the law, which schools will be accepting transfers and the application process.

No later than July 1, 2009, each local school system shall establish a universal, streamlined process available to all students to implement the transfer requirements of paragraph (1) of this subsection.

This Code section does not apply to newly opened schools with available classroom space for a period of four years after the school opens (Arabia) nor does it apply to charter schools (Chamblee). It also looks like due to its new IE2 status, Gwinnett County Public Schools will be able to circumvent this law.

I assume our Board is working up a policy and we will add it to this article as it becomes available. Other portions of this final version of the bill include a few school board ethics, but the private school vouchers and transfers from other counties were eliminated....for now.