Legislative Session
Day 19
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Report Snapshot
Senate Ed Hears Controversial Voucher Bill
House Higher Education Committee Has Hearing on Bill Providing Stipends for Teachers in Rural and Turnaround Schools
PSC Budget, Student Transportation Funding Discussed at Committee Hearing
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Upcoming Schedule
Thursday, Feb. 27 – Legislative Day 20
House Education Committee, 1 p.m., 606 CLOB
Friday, Feb. 28 – Legislative Day 21
Monday, March 2 – Legislative Day 22
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Senate Ed Hears Controversial Voucher Bill
In a committee room packed with advocates for disability rights, school vouchers, and public education, along with educators on State Superintendent Woods’ Teacher Advisory Council, and Tracey Pendley, Georgia 2020 Teacher of the Year, the Senate Education and Youth Committee considered
SB 386
, sponsored by Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford).
Unterman presented the legislation with help from Hannah Heck, a lobbyist for the American Federation of Children, a group promoting school privatization. The legislation, described in more detail in the
PAGE Day 17 report
, would expand Georgia’s special education school voucher program to include students with 504 plans and students adopted from foster care or in foster care guardianship. Unterman explained that she is sponsoring the bill in memory of her late son, who had special needs. She described frustration with the process of obtaining an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to meet her son’s needs in Gwinnett County Public Schools. She cited the need to expand the special education voucher program to serve all students with special needs, not only those with IEPs.
During committee discussion, Heck and Unterman conceded that 504 plans can be used to address temporary student health needs such as broken bones, and the two indicated an openness to amending the legislation to prioritize private school vouchers for students with more profound and continuous medical needs.
During the public comment that followed, parents of students with disabilities spoke for and against the bill. One mother who lives in the district of Senate Education Chair P.K. Martin (R-Lawrenceville) delivered emotional testimony, saying, “I, like many others, thought my son’s special needs would be addressed better in private school. I was wrong. I am not here to say that public schools are always the answer, but vouchers are not the answer. We cannot put students in situations where they don’t have rights.” She pleaded with policymakers to recognize that legal protections for students with disabilities inside public schools are “vital.”
Following her testimony, several disability rights advocates, including one from the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, cautioned the committee against passing legislation that encourages students with special needs to enroll in private schools, which are not legally required to follow the students’ medical and education plans.
Although PAGE signed up to testify in opposition to the voucher expansion and share deep reservations regarding the loss of important rights associated with IEPs and 504 plans, PAGE was not called to testify. Nor were multiple other public education advocates including the Georgia School Boards Association (GSBA) and Public Education Matters. Because the meeting ran beyond the scheduled two hours, Martin, who is a co-sponsor of SB 386, prioritized the testimony of parent advocates and those who do not frequently visit the Capitol. As the meeting adjourned, he invited those who signed up to speak but who were not called to submit written comments or make an appointment with him to discuss. Margaret Ciccarelli, director of legislative services for PAGE, asked him to consider holding another public hearing to ensure public education advocacy groups and others are able to make public comment, on the record.
-Margaret Ciccarelli
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House Higher Education Committee Has Hearing on Bill Providing Stipends for Teachers in Rural and Turnaround Schools
The House Higher Education Committee heard
HB 736
by Rep. David Belton (R-Buckhead) for the second time this afternoon after the bill underwent extensive revisions. It no longer offers student loan forgiveness for teachers in turnaround schools. Instead, the bill would create a stipend of $3,000 for up to five years for educators who choose to teach in a turnaround school or a school labeled by the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) as one of the state’s most rural schools. GaDOE would select a list of 100 schools deemed to have the highest number of vacancies from approximately 325 eligible schools by October 1 of each year and would allocate a certain number of slots to each school. The program would be limited to 1,000 teachers. The bill prioritizes teachers with student loan debt over veteran teachers, although veteran teachers would be eligible for the stipend if there are not enough loan-bearing teachers who apply.
Rep. David Dreyer (D-Atlanta) stated, “We would agree that this is not a perfect bill and does not solve all of our problems with teacher recruitment and retention, but this is a step in the right direction.”
PAGE Legislative Affairs Specialist Josh Stephens spoke in support of the new version of HB 736 saying, “PAGE sees this bill as another tool in the toolkit to help bolster teacher recruitment and retention efforts for rural school districts and high-needs schools.”
Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta) expressed his interest in changing the funding mechanism for the program from a stipend appropriated to GaDOE by the General Assembly to a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Several committee members expressed concern with this idea. The committee did not vote on the bill at this meeting.
-Josh Stephens
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PSC Budget, Student Transportation Funding Discussed at Committee Hearing
The House Education Appropriations Subcommittee heard presentations from the Georgia Professional Standards Commission (GaPSC) on its proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget. The committee also heard from the Georgia Department of Education on student transportation and state schools. The PAGE legislative team was not able to attend the full meeting as it conflicted with several other education committee meetings. However, the team is following these issues closely.
Newly appointed GaPSC Executive Secretary Matt Arthur delivered an overview of the Commission's work and described the impact of proposed cuts to the agency’s budget. Gov. Kemp has protected Georgia’s school funding formula, but required most state agencies to cut four percent in their current budgets and six percent from their upcoming fiscal year budgets. Arthur reported that the GaPSC is making changes to meet the requirement by moving staff, eliminating some vacant positions, and cutting back on travel.
“Our first priority is the work that we do in certification, ethics, and teacher preparation,” Arthur said. He described a growing backlog, compounded by budget cuts, of open educator ethics cases. Arthur reported that the commission was 382 cases behind at the end of January.
Committee questions centered around the growing ethics case backlog and the cost of initial educator certification, which at about $681, is higher than licensing fees for beginning attorneys and nurses, Arthur said.
State funding for student transportation continues to lag behind the cost of getting students to and from school safely. Districts are on track to spend nearly $1 billion busing students, but the state contributes less than 15 percent of the cost. This is down from about 50 percent in the 1990s. Districts must divert local funds from the classroom to cover this gap, leaving less to invest in teaching and learning. Inadequate state funding for student transportation affects all districts but is often a larger challenge for rural districts. These districts have fewer students spread over larger areas, driving their costs up. More information on student transportation funding and emerging safety concerns is available in this
report
.
-Margaret Ciccarelli and Claire Suggs
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Claire Suggs
Senior Education Policy Analyst
csuggs@pageinc.org
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Josh Stephens
Legislative Affairs Specialist
jstephens@pageinc.org
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Margaret Ciccarelli
Director of Legislative Services
mciccarelli@pageinc.org
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