All-digital effort for Georgia schools on hold in Senate

The Georgia Senate will re-examine a mandate forcing the state’s school districts to go all digital by 2020, after deciding Monday to re-commit the bill to committee.

Critics of Senate Bill 89 called it well-intentioned but misguided, since they worry it would create an unfunded mandate.

As it’s written now, SB 89 says all districts must begin buying only digital textbooks and instructional materials by July 1, 2020. If it had come to the floor, a bipartisan coalition had been expected to vote against it.

The bill's sponsor, state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, has dubbed the bill the "Digital Classroom Act." He made the motion sending it back to the Senate Science and Technology Committee, saying he wanted it to help him correct a "reproduction error."

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