email : Webview : Twenty-ninth legislative day

After an exhausting week,
legislature took it easy today

The House adjourned about 1 a.m. Saturday, Crossover Day, after working late for several days this past week. Recovering, both the House and Senate had a light agenda today.

Tomorrow, several committee meetings of importance to public education will meet.

At 1 o'clock, the Senate Children and Families Committee will hear HB 1123, which would require public schools that offer after-school programs and have Georgia Pre-K programs offer those Pre-K students spaces in after-school programs.

At the same time, the Senate Retirement Committee will meet. The committee will consider HB 372, legislation that would extend and improve a program that allows retired teachers to return to the classroom - after one year in retirement but only in certain hard-to-fill subject areas. This bill would extend the program that is scheduled to expire this year and shifts the identification of those hard-to-fill areas to local school districts and away from Georgia Regional Education Service Agencies (RESAs).

At 2 o'clock, the Senate Committee on Education and Youth will meet. On its agenda are two House-passed bills:

HB 1107, "The Excellent Teacher Preparation Act," concerns Education Preparation Programs (EPPs). The bill would require the state Board of Education, the state Department of Education, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and the Office of Student Achievement develop performance measures that evaluate the performance of each EPP. Included in the list of measures of EPP programs is information about graduates' student performance data for the first three years after EPP completion; and

HB 1164, to improve transparency and fiscal soundness of school systems, would require the State Board of Education to appoint an audit committee and would revise provisions for financial audits of local school systems.

The Senate Higher Education Committee will meet at 3 o'clock but no agenda has been posted.