The Education Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Sen. Lindsey Tippins, met Tuesday to hear the amended fiscal year 2018 budget. When presenting his department's portion of the budget, Ted Beck, the Chief Financial Officer at GaDOE, was asked  by Sen. Michael Williams (R-Cumming) why data shows declining student enrollment. Beck cited a decreasing birth rate during the recession, noting that birth rates have increased since then. Williams also asked if GaDOE tracks enrollment in private and home school and if that enrollment rate has increased. Beck answered that the percentage of students enrolled in public school has hovered around 92 percent of all school-aged children and that he would provide more information following further research.

 

Cayanna Goode, the new executive director of the Governor's Office of Student Achievement (GOSA), presented information about a budget line item that would cover the cost of one non-STEM AP exam for low-income students as well as an appropriation for start-up costs of a statewide leadership academy.

 

Finally, the committee heard testimony from the director of Kindezi Schools, a charter school in the city of Atlanta that has been contracted by Atlanta Public Schools to help turn around low-performing schools in the district. The school experienced a QBE-related error due to a reporting issue regarding teacher demographics as APS transitioned to a new software for personnel management. The calculation was off by 86 teachers, which resulted in a loss of $975,540 in state funding and $1.3 million in local funding related to State Health Benefit Plan costs for those teachers. Kindezi Schools has requested to recoup the lost $975,540 in state funding in the AFY18 budget. The committee did not vote on the budget at this meeting.

The House Retirement Committee met Wednesday to hear several bills including two bills with no financial impact on the Teacher Retirement System (TRS):

 

HB 418 by Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson) is a bill that would allow educators that taught overseas to purchase up to two years of creditable service in TRS as long as the member financially covers full actuarial costs. The committee passed the bill on to the House Rules committee.

 

HB 706 by Rep. Darlene Taylor (R-Thomasville) is a bill that would allow for the assignment of benefits to pay for funeral services of a deceased individual who was a member of the Employees' Retirement System of Georgia, Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, or Public School Employees Retirement System. Rep. Taylor and several speakers (including two legislators) that operate funeral homes explained that funeral homes are having issues within existing law with recouping full costs of funeral services from beneficiaries of the deceased. Members of the committee expressed concerns with the bill including a provision in the bill that actually allows other benefits, in addition to death benefits, to be assigned. Rep. Taylor agreed with committee members to work with legislative counsel on cleaning up the bill. The bill was announced as hearing only at the beginning of the meeting.