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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2009 > March > 05
Thursday, March 5, 2009
A boost for the ACT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With all the emphasis placed on the SAT, it’s easy for Georgians to forget students can also take the ACT.
HB 547 would place both college admissions tests on equal footing by requiring the state to pay for students to take the ACT PLAN, a practice test. The House Education Committee unanimously approved the bill Thursday.
The state already pays for sophomores to take the PSAT. HB 547, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus), would let students choose which test to take.
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Charter schools could see rent break
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
School boards would be required to let local charter schools use empty school buildings, under a bill the House Education Committee unanimously approved Thursday.
HB 555, sponsored by David Casas (R-Lilburn), would let charter schools rent the buildings for free. Local school boards and charter schools would negotiate the terms of the lease, such as who would pay utility bills and maintenance costs.
Charter schools are funded with taxpayer money and can operate independent of local school districts. About 43,000 Georgia students attend 113 charter schools.
Charter schools often struggle to find facilities and must pay rent or purchase vacant buildings. Some school districts already charge to rent buildings to charter schools. For example, Atlanta Public Schools leases building to three charter schools, charging between $2,200 to $12,000 a month.
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Top teachers could keep bonuses
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia teachers with national board certification would continue to get bonuses, under a substitute HB 243 the House Education Committee approved Thursday.
The revised bill, introduced by Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Acworth), keeps the 10 percent salary increase that about 2,500 Georgia teachers currently receive. It also promises the supplement to teachers who are in the process of earning certification.
The bill represents a change from the original HB 243, which eliminated the bonus. Rep. Jimmy Pruett (R-Eastman) filed the legislation on behalf of Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has said eliminating the bonuses could save the state about $12 million.
Teachers across the state opposed the change, saying the money was promised to them.
Rep. Jan Jones (R-Milton) offered an amendment that would prohibit teachers from receiving the bonus when they renew the certification, which lasts for 10 years. The amendment failed.
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards runs the certification program, which often takes more than a year to complete.
The education committee approved the bill, 13-6.
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Senate panel sends ‘octuplet mom’ bill to study committee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would have limited the number of embryos that doctors could create and then transfer into a woman was slow-tracked Thursday in a state legislative committee.
Senators on the Health and Human Services Committee voted 12 to 3 to send the bill to a study committee in a subcommittee, dimming its chances of passing this session.
Senate Bill 169 was introduced in reaction to the California woman who gave birth recently to octuplets through in-vitro fertilization. Nadya Suleman already had six children and was on public assistance.
Before a packed room, senators heard testimony in favor of the bill. Supporters said women were not meant to bear “litters” and that egg-stimulating medicines harm women.
A longer list of opponents signed up to speak, arguing that the bill would greatly limit an infertile woman’s chances of conceiving and would effectively shut down the practice of in-vitro fertilization in Georgia, sending patients to other states where they would have better chances of success in achieving pregnancy.
The bill would limit the number of embryos created to the amount that would be implanted in a woman at any one time. Women under 40 would be limited to receiving two embryos at a time, and women over 40 would be limited to receiving three embryos.
Several senators said they supported the idea of regulating fertility treatments, but felt the idea needed more study. Supporters said they will continue working to pass the bill in the future.
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UPDATED: Richardson wants to give state leaders power to perform marriages
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
UPDATED THROUGHOUT
The Rev. Sonny Perdue?
Legislation approved in the Georgia House on Thursday would allow the governor and other top elected state officials perform wedding ceremonies after Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) told his colleagues Perdue recently learned he was barred from doing so.
Richardson did not elaborate on whom it was Perdue wanted to help get married, and a request for details from the governor’s office has not yet been answered, but could it be recently ousted transportation honcho Gena Evans?
Evans, nee Abraham, who until recently was commissioner of the Department of Transportation, married Mike Evans, who had been chairman of the DOT board, in a ceremony in September in Alabama. Perdue sort of co-presided along with an official circuit court judge in that neighboring state.
Richardson used this issue for his first foray into the well of the House to address his colleagues.
“It wasn’t very long ago I noticed our governor was asked to perform a marriage ceremony and he wasn’t allowed to do that,” Richardson said.
The speaker said other states allow the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker and constitutional officers to preside at wedding ceremonies.
He asked the House to approve an amendment to HB 184 giving Georgia’s top officials that ability. HB 184, sponsored by Rep. Gloria Frazier (D-Hephzibah), urges couples to get tested for sickle cell disease before marrying.
The amendment, and the bill, were approved by a vote of 155-1, with Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta) casting the lone “no” vote.
If approved by the Senate and signed into law, the speaker, governor, lieutenant governor, speaker pro tem, president pro tem and all current and former constitutional officers would be authorized to legally marry couples.
Current state law says any judge, city recorder, magistrate, minister “or other person of any religious society or sect authorized by the rules of such society to perform the marriage ceremony” can legally marry two people (of the opposite sex, of course).
The measure approved Thursday caused Rep. Roger Bruce (D-Atlanta) to wonder if they would have to now refer to the speaker as “reverend.”
Speaker Pro Tem Mark Burkhalter (R-Johns Creek) said that would only occasionally be necessary.
“Only if you want to get married,” Burkhalter said.
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House sets new calendar; session to end in April
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The House has approved a new calendar for the rest of the legislative session that has the 2009 session ending Friday, April 3.
The calendar, presented this morning by House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island), is a change from the one approved in February that had the General Assembly meeting through late March and then breaking for several months, before returning to finish up in late June.
The schedule, in the form of a House resolution, will be considered by the Senate this afternoon, although Keen said it was worked out in consultation with Senate leadership.
The earlier schedule was created to offer lawmakers flexibility to deal with worrisome changes to state revenue forecasts and to provide a chance for them to receive and spend federal stimulus money.
Most of that has now been taken care of, Keen said.
The proposed schedule would set Day 30 as next Thursday, March 12. That’s the last day that any bill can go from one chamber to the other and still be considered this year.
The final week of the session, lawmakers would meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
“You will probably be on the floor quite a long time between now and then end of this month,” Keen said.
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UPDATED: Legislature to meet Monday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Changes are coming to the General Assembly’s meeting schedule, as the House Rules Committee moments ago picked bills to debate on Monday.
The House and Senate had been meeting Tuesday through Thursday for the past several weeks, under a compromise schedule designed to add flexibility. The currently approved schedule has the Legislature meeting through March 25, and returning for a few days in late June.
That schedule was designed in case lawmakers needed more time through the spring to deal with a further eroding state budget scenario or to accommodate federal stimulus dollars.
There was no immediate word on what the decision to convene Monday means for the overall schedule, but if lawmakers meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it would make Wednesday the all-important 30th day of the session.
The 30th of the 40 days that the Legislature is in session is the last day that a bill can pass from one chamber, and often sets off a frenzy of action as lawmakers sprint to get their bills sent across the Capitol in time.
UPDATE: OK, so when all else fails, consult the schedule.
According to House Resolution 238, which lawmakers approved back in February, which set the schedule for the year, the Legislature had already planned to meet Monday, Tuesday and Thursday next week.
That makes next Thursday the all-important Day 30.
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