email : Webview : Nineteenth legislative day

Senate Retirement Committee and
House Ed subcommittees met today

The Senate Retirement Committee met today to hear SB 209, a bill by Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Clinch County, to allow those state employees whose pension is through the Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) to make a one-time-only decision to join the Teachers Retirement System (TRS). No vote was taken but the bill is expected to be back before the committee, with amendments, next week.

PSERS covers Education Support Professionals (ESPs) such as school bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, and maintenance personnel not in management positions. The bill's concept has the support of Democrats and Republicans as evidenced by the bipartisan list of sponsors.

Entering the TRS would "double the pension" for some of those who might switch from PSERS, if the bill becomes law, according to Jim Potvin, executive director of the state Employees Retirement System (ERS), which administers PSERS.

About the same time, the House Education Committee's Education Policy and Innovation Subcommittee met. The subcommittee heard four bills:

HB 634: A bill filed by House Republicans to amend the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Act concerning expedited completions of a student's first Individualized Education Program (IEP). The bill states: " ... in the case of a student whose first Individual Education Program was expedited ... but was not in effect at the time of the most recent enrollment count, the initial calculation of the maximum scholarship amount shall be based upon services specified in the
Individualized Education Program in place at the time such Individualized Education
Program takes effect." The bill passed the subcommittee with bipartisan support.

HB 1164 would require State Board of Education to appoint an audit committee. The bill was approved by the subcommittee.

HB 1218 would allow virtual school students to participate in the athletic programs of their resident schools. The legislation was passed on to the full House Education Committee.

HB 1220: Waives the six-week required enrollment in public school for certain students enrolling in the state's private school voucher program. Those include students of an active-duty military family, students with IEPs or 504 plans or have been diagnosed with dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, speech-language delay and disorder, hearing loss, or another intellectual and developmental disability. These students are currently already eligible for the Special Needs Voucher. The bill advanced to the full House Education Committee.

An hour later, the House Education's Curriculum and Academic Achievement Subcommittee met to consider four more bills:

HB 1030: "The Math Matters Act" would require that middle and high school students have access to advanced math classes and that students in the 4th and 5th grades have 60 minutes daily or 300 minutes weekly core math instruction. The bill was approved by the subcommittee.

HB 1107: "The Excellent Teacher Preparation Act" concerns educator preparation providers or 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. Such EPP performance measures shall focus on the preparedness and performance of EPP graduates. Included in the list of measures of EPP teachers is information about student performance data for the first three years after EPP completion. The bill passed of subcommittee this afternoon.

HB 1123 would require public schools that offer after-school programs and that have Georgia Pre-K programs include those Pre-K students in the after-school programs. The bill passed today.

HB 1259 woud prohibit local schools that offer virtual instruction from accepting out-of-district and out-of-state students if the local school system has failed to maintain a College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) over 70 in the past two years. HB 1259 passed by substitute.

All of these bills now move to the full House Education Committee.