March 11, 2016

Table of Contents

SB 364 Passes House Education Committee - Thank You for Your Advocacy!

Other Bills Pass the Committee

Senate Passes FY 17 Budget

Assistance Needed on Proposed Tax Amendment that Threatens Funding for Schools

Senate Education and Youth Committee Passes a Plethora of Bills

Resolution Urging Creation of SHBP Advisory Council Needs a Push

Meeting Schedule

Fri. March 11 - House Education Committee - 8:30am - 606 CLOB

Fri. March 11 - Senate Education and Youth - 2:00pm - 307 CLOB

Week in Review

CLICK HERE
to watch the latest Week in Review podcast to catch up on last week's action under the Gold Dome.

PAGE Report From the Capitol

Days 34 and 35

SB 364 Passes House Education Committee -

Thank You for Your Advocacy!

The House Education Committee met early this morning to vote on a House substitute version of SB 364. House Education Vice Chair Mike Dudgeon (R-Johns Creek) presented the committee substitute which restores Sen. Lindsey Tippins' (R-Marietta) language creating a research-based formative assessment with a summative component that is tied to performance indicators in English, language arts/reading and mathematics in first and second grade. Review the version of SB 364 which passed this morning HERE.

Rep. Dudgeon amended the section of the bill dealing with classroom observations so that veteran, high-performing educators will have "no less than two" classroom observations and one summative evaluation. The previous version of the bill made this language permissive with the word "may" instead of "shall."

When asked by the committee to provide comment on the substitute, Sen. Tippins explained, "This really isn't my bill. It is a culmination of a lot of people -- school boards, superintendents, teachers, and others. I asked them, 'If you had a chance to fix it, how would you fix it?' Many people contributed to this. I brought you a good bill and I believe this substitute bill is better than the one I brought you."

Other highlights of the House substitute include:

Reduces the percentage of standardized tests as a factor of educator evaluation from 50 percent to 30 percent for teachers and from 70 percent to 40 percent for school leaders. The previous allowance in SB 364 to de-emphasize testing by 10 additional percentage points was deleted in the version of SB 364 which passed today.
Mandates that a student must be present for 90 percent of a teacher's course for that student's test score to count in the teacher's evaluation.
States that educators may appeal procedural problems with their performance evaluation. The summative evaluation cannot be appealed.
Specifically prohibits any quota system with a forced distribution of evaluation scores.
Removes eight state-required standardized tests in science and social studies.
Requires that state assessments be determined to be valid and reliable by a third-party evaluator.
Buford City and Webster County school districts will be included in the educator evaluation and testing reforms.

PAGE would like to thank Sen. Tippins for sponsoring SB 364 as well as leadership of the House Education Committee for their hard work to provide these important testing and educator evaluation reforms requested by more than 375,000 parents, educators, administrators, and other stakeholders.

PAGE would also like to thank you, readers. Your advocacy has moved SB 364 through the process. However, calls and e-mails still need to be made to ensure the House passes the bill.

The next step for SB 364 is passage through the House Rules Committee. Please contact members of that committee and encourage them to schedule this important testing and evaluation reform for a floor vote as soon as possible. Access the email addresses of House Rules members HERE.

Read a press release from PAGE on today's passage of SB 364 HERE.

Other Bills Pass the Committee

The House Education Committee also passed the following bills, which head to Rules:

SB 355 by Sen. William Ligon (R-Brunswick) is a testing opt-out bill that prohibits punitive "sit and stare" policies and codifies the Georgia Department of Education's opt-out guidance.

SB 349 by Sen. Tippins allows both Charter and Strategic Waiver systems to operate College and Career Academies. Sen. Tippins mentioned this bill will be added to SB 659 by Rep. Dave Belton (R-Buckhead). More info on this later in the report.

Senate Passes FY 17 Budget

The Senate passed the FY 17 budget on Thursday. Changes in the Senate version include:

An increase of $1.2 million in information technology funding.
A decrease of $2.5 million in the State Charter School Commission supplement.
$3.5 million in new funding for Career, Technical and Agricultural Education equipment grants.

CLICK HERE to review the budget. Education begins on Page 95.

Assistance Needed on Proposed Tax Amendment that

Threatens Funding for Schools

A pair of pending tax proposals, both of which crossed over by the deadline and are viable until the end of session on March 24th, would have dramatic impacts on state funding for education and other important state services.

SR 756, a constitutional amendment that institutes an automatic reduction of the income tax rate when certain conditions are met, passed the Senate last week and is currently awaiting a hearing in House Appropriations. HB 238, which would reduce the top income tax rate among other things, is currently in Senate Rules. Together, the package would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually, jeopardizing funding for education and other services.

Get all the facts and tools to engage your lawmaker on this important issue through an online hub courtesy of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

Currently the state is underfunding schools by $466 million. With the partial restoration of ongoing austerity cuts, next year, the school funding gap is set to fall to $166 million. Reducing the funding gap is made possible only with growing state revenue. If this tax package is approved, schools may once again face substantial cuts that caused widespread teacher furloughs, larger class sizes and a shortened school year for many.

Please take the following actions:

Reach out to members of House Appropriations with your concerns on SR 756.
Reach out to members of Senate Rules, and your Senator, to express concerns on HB 238.

Senate Education and Youth Committee

Passes a Plethora of Bills

The Senate Education and Youth Committee passed the following bills this afternoon, which now head to Senate Rules:

HB 65 by Rep. Michael Caldwell (R-Woodstock) requires local boards of education and state charter schools to hold at least two public meetings on their proposed annual operating budget. The bill also requires that a summary of the annual operating budget be posted on the Internet and that a detailed version of the budget be made available upon public request.

HB 614 by Rep. Valencia Stovall (D-Lake City) creates a voluntary program for school districts to place video cameras in self-contained special education classrooms.

HB 659 by Rep. Dave Belton (R-Buckhead) requires local boards of education and state charter schools to provide a detailed breakdown of the budget and expenditure information in each school in the district. Section one of the bill was added by committee substitute to reflect language in SB 394.

HB 739 by Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville) allows public review of primary instructional material used in each district. This information will also be posted on the district's website. Ancillary materials used in the classroom such as worksheets, articles, online simulations, worksheets, novels, biographies, speeches, videos, music, and similar resources would not be included in this review process.

HB 879 by Rep. Tom Taylor (R-Dunwoody) would allow high school graduates who have achieved a high level of proficiency in a language other than English to be awarded a seal of biliteracy.

HB 895 by Rep. Rahn Mayo (D-Decatur) would require finance directors of charter schools to complete two to three hours of financial training annually as part of their required training.

HR 394 by Rep. Randy Nix (R-LaGrange) is a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for the distribution of the net proceeds of ESPLOST funds between a county school system and independent school systems located in the county.

The following bill received a hearing, but no vote was taken as a substitute is expected on Monday:

HB 959 by Rep. Beth Beskin (R-Atlanta) is the annual "Title 20 cleanup" bill, and Chairman Tippins mentioned the bill will be heard next week.

Resolution Urging Creation of SHBP

Advisory Council Needs a Push

HR 1382, a resolution by Rep. Debbie Buckner (R-Junction City) encouraging the Department of Community Health to create the State Health Benefit Plan Customer Advisory Council, passed out of the House Health and Human Services Committee today. The PAGE-supported legislation now moves to the House Rules committee where the idea of a SHBP advisory committee has stalled in previous years. When contacting House Rules members about SB 364, also encourage them to move this important resolution to the House for a vote. Access House Rules contact information HERE.

Josh Stephens - Legislative Policy Analyst
jstephens@pageinc.org

Margaret Ciccarelli - Director of Legislative Affairs mciccarelli@pageinc.org

PAGE's core business is to provide professional learning for educators that will enhance professional competence and confidence, build leadership qualities and lead to higher academic achievement for students, while providing the best in membership, legislative and legal services and support