Speaker Jon Burns’ sweeping literacy overhaul caught in legislative crossfire
Today’s newsletter highlights
- Test your knowledge with our news quiz.
- Top advertisers in the Georgia governor’s race pour unprecedented sums into TV ads.
- Kemp says he will suspend Georgia’s gas tax amid surging prices.
Capitol crossfire
One of House Speaker Jon Burns’ signature priorities is suddenly stuck in the Gold Dome’s familiar crossfire, raising the risk it becomes collateral damage in the annual House-Senate endgame.
Burns’ sweeping literacy overhaul — which he cast as the biggest shift in Georgia education policy in three decades — easily cleared the House last month.
But in the Senate, it’s been rerouted from the Education Committee to the powerful Appropriations panel led by state Sen. Blake Tillery R-Vidalia.
At the same time, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is turning up the heat.
Jones delivered a rare and lengthy floor speech this week taking aim at his top GOP rival for governor, Rick Jackson, and signaling support for a stalled proposal that would force the billionaire to give up roughly $1 billion in state contracts.
Burns’ measure would steer new funding toward early-grade reading, including literacy coaches for K-3 classrooms aimed at boosting phonics-based instruction and early intervention. Backers say it responds to a stark reality: Only about one in three Georgia students read on grade level by the end of third grade.
But with tensions simmering between Burns and Jones, there’s growing concern that the bill could become a bargaining chip as the session barrels toward its final days.
Burns isn’t letting it drift quietly. His office rolled out a show of support Thursday from school boards, superintendents and other education groups, part of a pressure campaign to keep the measure moving.
“It’s time we make this critical investment in the future of our children and our state,” he said.
Friday news quiz
Good morning! How closely have you been following political news in Georgia and beyond? Find out by taking our news quiz. You’ll find the answers at the end of the newsletter.
Democrat Nabilah Parkes resigned her state Senate seat to focus on her run for lieutenant governor. How many state lawmakers have resigned this year to run for higher office?
- A) 2
- B) 6
- C) 9
- D) 4
Officials in Social Circle have been trying to stop the federal government from taking a warehouse in the city and converting it to an immigrant detention facility. How are they doing that?
- A) Filing a lawsuit.
- B) Denying the federal government’s zoning request.
- C) Cutting off water and sewer service to the warehouse.
- D) Circling the warehouse with a wall of concrete barriers.
Travelers going through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are enduring lengthy delays at security checkpoints. Why?
- A) Transportation Security Administration workers are on strike.
- B) Many TSA workers are calling out of work because they are not getting paid during a partial government shutdown.
- C) A major construction project has disrupted the flow of pedestrian traffic.
- D) A virus has damaged the TSA’s computer systems.
Georgia officials signed an agreement in 2021 that is preventing them from executing nine inmates on death row. Why?
- A) The drugs required for lethal injection are not widely available.
- B) The COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been approved for all age groups.
- C) The ratio of officers to inmates at state prisons is still too low.
- D) The inmate population has not declined.
Cha-ching
If you want a sense of just how warped this governor’s race has become, start with one number: $77 million.
That’s how much top political advertisers have already committed on Georgia’s airwaves — and the primary is still two months away.
Rick Jackson’s unprecedented self-funding is the biggest factor. His $38.6 million in ad reservations alone accounts for roughly half of all spending so far.
But Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his allies aren’t holding back, with millions more reserved and outside groups jumping in. And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has quietly booked more than $3 million in future ads.
To put that in context:
Gov. Brian Kemp’s full 2018 campaign — the race that launched his governorship — ran on roughly $22 million total.
The entire 2022 GOP primary for governor saw about $35 million in ad spending.
And this year’s primary is already approaching the scale of Kemp’s total 2022 reelection effort, which topped $80 million.
Meanwhile, Democrats are hardly engaged. The roughly $1 million in TV spending comes mostly from Jason Esteves and his seven-figure ad buy.
Partisan fighting
Georgia lawmakers love to compare themselves with Congress, contrasting the gridlock in Washington with a free-flowing state Legislature that gets things done.
But Thursday, it was hard to tell the difference.
Two proposals that on a normal day would likely have passed the chamber with no problems both failed in an example of partisan warfare. Republicans were livid. Democrats were unapologetic.
“We’re getting closer and closer, as far as our numbers are concerned,” Senate Democratic Leader Harold Jones II said of Democrats eating into the Republican majority. “We’re going to have to learn how to work together here. And that’s the key thing. And I think today, hopefully, will spur that.”
Both bills were constitutional amendments that required a two-thirds vote to pass the chamber. One would have made the election of probate judges nonpartisan. The other would set up a fund to pay for improving the state’s 911 emergency call systems.
Jones said Democrats were angry Republicans didn’t even bother asking for their votes for the constitutional amendments. Republicans were upset Democrats tanked a public safety measure.
“This bill didn’t pass because, sadly, the Democrats in the state Senate decided to play politics and vote against the safety and security of every Georgian,” state Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, said.
It’s not over yet. Both proposals could still pass as they will get another vote today.
Tossup?
The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia now says Georgia’s race for governor is a “tossup,” shifting their forecast from “leans Republican.”
Helmed by Larry J. Sabato, the center now deems Georgia as “the clearest Democratic pickup opportunity.” That assessment is driven in large part by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, whom it considers a favorite to win reelection.
“While it’s easy to see some ticket-splitting benefiting Republicans in the other statewide races, we don’t know that it would be enough to justify keeping the gubernatorial race two categories away, at Leans Republican,” Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman wrote.
The center notes that of the six states that backed presidential candidates from both parties in the last three elections, Democrats hold four of them (Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) while Republicans hold two (Georgia and Nevada).
Gas tax relaxed
If you’ve been suffering from sticker shock from the fast-rising price of gas lately, help is on the way.
On Thursday, the state Senate passed a measure to suspend the state’s 33 cent-per-gallon gas tax (37 cents per gallon for diesel) for 60 days.
Since the House already passed the suspension bill on Wednesday, it’s ready for Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature. The governor said he’ll sign it today.
Under the Gold Dome
It’s Day 35 of the legislative session. Some happenings:
- 9 a.m.: Senate convenes.
- 10 a.m.: House convenes. They’re scheduled to debate Senate Resolution 23, which would call for a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution to limit the number of terms a person may be elected.
Listen up
There is no “Politically Georgia” podcast today. We’ll be back on Monday.
You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
Bottoms’ memoir
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is publishing a memoir just a few weeks before she’ll appear on the ballot in the Democratic primary for governor.
“The Rough Side of the Mountain” will publish on April 21.
“The excitement of holding a hard copy of my book for the first time has me giddy,” Bottoms wrote on social media.
Publisher Harper Collins says the book will recount Bottoms’ upbringing as the baby of her family and a “daddy’s girl” of soul singer Major Lance. She also recounts her career trajectory that includes attorney, judge, City Council member, mayor and finally senior adviser to President Joe Biden.
But the tease also promises that the book will deal with darker themes and possibly new details regarding her decision not to seek a second term as mayor.
“Stepping away from the daily political grind, Bottoms realized how much she’d sanded down parts of herself on her path to professional success,” the publisher’s website says. “She’d tucked away the fuller details about her dad’s drug abuse and prison stint for dealing; the sexual abuse she endured; the eating disorder she developed; the close-knit, utterly unpolished family who doted on her and gave her an incredible foundation of love and confidence but whose influence she’d smoothed to a sleek, charming, campaign-ready sheen.
“She thought that was the price of upward mobility. Then she realized she was wrong.”
Today in Washington
- President Donald Trump will president the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy to the U.S. Naval Academy’s football team before departing to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend.
- The House is done for the week.
- The Senate will continue debate on the SAVE America Act.
- Ossoff will participate in a women’s health care rally in Atlanta alongside the presidents of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Reproductive Freedom for All.
Dueling polls
Earlier this week, we reported on a new poll from state Rep. Jasmine Clark’s campaign for Congress that says she is essentially tied for first place with U.S. Rep. David Scott in the Democratic primary.
That appears to have prompted another candidate, former Gwinnett School Board Chairman Everton Blair, to release internal polling results of his own that told a very different story.
Blair’s campaign conducted its poll in January. It showed him leading the field with Clark slightly behind and Scott in third place.
Shoutouts
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Before you go
Answers to this week’s news quiz
- D) 4. The others are state Sens. Jason Esteves, John F. Kennedy and Colton Moore.
- C) Cut off water and sewer service to the warehouse. City officials say they will restore service once the federal government answers their questions.
- B) The partial government shutdown. Congress has not funded the Department of Homeland Security because of a dispute about immigration enforcement.
- B) The COVID-19 vaccine is not yet available for all age groups. Georgia agreed in 2021 not to execute the inmates until the vaccine was available to everyone.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.
About the Authors
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Tia Mitchell is the AJC’s Washington Bureau Chief and a co-host of the "Politically Georgia" podcast. She writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
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