2017 Legislative Session
January 11, 2017

Table of Contents
Gov. Deal's State of the State
PAGE Response to State of State & FY18 Budget
Deal Appoints Two State BOE Members
House and Senate Hold Joint Ed Meeting on CCRPI & Testing
PAGE Report From the Capitol
Days 1-3 
Governor's State of the State - OSD Plan B Emerges,
2 Percent Pay Raise for Educators, FY 2018 Budget

Under Gov. Nathan Deal's proposed FY 2018 state budget released today and referenced by the governor in his State of the State address, teachers will receive a 2 percent increase in the state salary schedule next year. This is the first salary schedule adjustment since the FY09 budget. Gov. Deal noted the increase during his speech at the state Capitol. Education was one of many policy areas addressed during the speech. Deal noted the excellent work of educators to increase the graduation rate across the state while also laying out his rationale for state intervention at the elementary level for schools that struggle to meet state accountability benchmarks. While Deal did not provide specifics on interventions or the indicators that will trigger them, news trickled out last week that one intervention proposed under the new plan includes school choice and vouchers for students and families in identified elementary schools that do not improve according to the state rating system.

The FY 2018 budget will undergo changes as it winds through the House and Senate before budget conferees are appointed to agree on a final version.

PAGE Response to State of the State and
FY 2018 Budget Draft

 
"PAGE appreciates the governor's proposed two percent adjustment of the state salary schedule for educators," said Dr. Allene Magill, PAGE executive director. "It's a significant step for educators to have some expectation of the first state salary increase in eight years."

Magill said Gov. Deal's statement recognizing the hard work of educators in raising the achievement of students and the graduation rate is well-deserved. PAGE staff will closely monitor and report on the development of the governor's Plan B to address elementary schools struggling to meet state benchmarks currently included in CCRPI and will advocate for changes in the state's measurement model that recognizes student growth. 
Deal Appoints Two New State Board Members
 
Gov. Deal recently filled two vacancies on the State Board of Education, appointing former House member Mike Cheokas (R-Americus) and interior designer Lee Anne Cowart of Thomson. The State Board meets this week, and more information about that upcoming meeting is available HERE.
House and Senate Hold Joint Ed Meeting
on CCRPI and Student Testing

 
The House and Senate Education Committees met in a joint session Tuesday afternoon and heard presentations from the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) on Georgia's standardized testing program and College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI). The standardized testing presentation, which was delivered by Dr. Melissa Fincher, is available HERE. The presentation included enlightening information regarding the number of standardized tests Georgia requires versus federal requirements, what optional tests local districts may choose to administer and disruptions from the most recent Georgia Milestones administration.

Following the CCRPI and assessment presentations, Dr. Brian Hightower, superintendent of Cherokee County Schools, described his district's experiences with CCRPI and student testing. Representatives from Cobb and Fulton school districts echoed Dr. Hightower's comments, which centered on the need for Georgia's CCRPI (or its replacement accountability metric) to more strongly emphasize student growth, the benefit of faster return of all test and CCRPI scores so that districts can use the information constructively and reducing the negative impact of standardized testing on students. There was a good deal of praise for Dr. Fincher and her team's work to solve testing problems, and the district representatives also expressed gratitude for last legislative session's SB 364 which lifted the burden of unpopular Student Learning Objective (SLO) testing.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Lisa Morgan, a veteran DeKalb County educator who teaches at a school targeted for state takeover by Amendment 1, asked the joint committee to address the poverty in struggling schools and to improve CCRPI to maximize instructional time.

The comments by the visiting educators from Cherokee, Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb seemed to be well-received by the House and Senate members, and the conversation about how to address struggling schools seems now to include more focus on addressing the causes of those schools' struggles.
 
Margaret Ciccarelli - Director of Legislative Affairs mciccarelli@pageinc.org
  


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