Legislative Session
Day 13
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Report Snapshot
PAGE Day on the Hill 2020
Retirement Committee Hears But Doesn’t Vote on Controversial TRS Bill
House Appropriations Committee Approves Revisions to the 2020 Budget
House Education Subcommittee Passes Foster Care IEP Bill
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Upcoming Schedule
Wednesday, Feb. 19 – Legislative Day 14
- Senate Education & Youth Committee, 2 p.m., 307 CLOB
- Senate Retirement Committee, 4 p.m., MEZZ 1
Thursday, Feb. 20 – Legislative Day 15
Friday, Feb. 21 – Legislative Day 16
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PAGE Day on the Hill 2020
PAGE joined co-sponsors, the Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL) and the Georgia Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (GACTE), to host its annual Day at the Capitol. More than 200 members of the three organizations convened to receive an update on critical legislative issues and meet with legislators.
The morning kicked off at the Sloppy Floyd Building with an update from Buddy Costley, GAEL’s executive director, and Margaret Ciccarelli, PAGE’s legislative director, on key bills moving through the legislature. Other presenters included:
- Claire Suggs, senior education policy analyst with PAGE, who provided an overview of the competing priorities at the center of the current budget debate. Detailed information about the budget debate is available from PAGE here.
- Josh Stephens, legislative affairs specialist with PAGE, and Jimmy Stokes, policy analyst for GAEL, shared strategies for effective advocacy with lawmakers.
- Senator P.K. Martin (R-Lawrenceville), chair of the Senate Education and Youth Committee, shared information about Senate Bill 367, which would reduce the number of state assessments.
- Rep. Dave Belton (R-Buckhead) provided information on House Bill 736, which would create a student loan repayment program for teachers as well as House Bill 336, a return-to-work bill for retired teachers.
- Deputy State Superintendent Tiffany Taylor discussed the Georgia Department of Education’s legislative priorities, which include the reduction in testing. She also noted the department’s interest in looking at possible changes to the teacher evaluation system.
Calista Jahn with Voices for Georgia’s Children and Family Connections Partnership described efforts underway to make sure every Georgian participates in the Census 2020 count. An accurate count is essential to ensure Georgia receives the full amount of federal funding available in education, health care, transportation and other critical areas. More information is available
here
.
At the conclusion of the morning session at Sloppy Floyd, GACTE student ambassadors and PAGE membership service representatives lead Day on the Hill attendees to the Gold Dome. There, current and future educators paged House and Senate members and engaged legislators in conversations about important education issues such as the proposed educator pay raise and TRS.
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Later, attendees reconvened for lunch at Sloppy Floyd and enjoyed a visit from Gov. Brian P. Kemp, who spoke regarding his education initiatives including fully funding the Quality Basic Education formula (QBE), a proposed $2,000 educator pay raise (in addition to the $3,000 passed in 2019), and standardized testing reduction legislation.
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Many educators stayed at the Capitol for afternoon committee meetings.
-Claire Suggs and Margaret Ciccarelli
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Retirement Committee Hears But Doesn’t Vote on Controversial TRS Bill
The House Retirement Committee heard, but did not vote on, changes to
HB 109
this afternoon. The version of HB 109 discussed today is not available online as of this writing. The current legislation allows educators employed after July 1, 2020, to use a maximum of one year of accrued sick leave for retirement purposes. The bill’s sick leave provisions would not impact current educators, who are able to use all unused sick leave for retirement purposes. The legislation, sponsored by House Retirement Chair Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson), would also limit TRS cost of living adjustments (COLAs) to three percent or less once annually. Currently, TRS retirees receive a 1.5 percent COLA twice each year. Benton mentioned when presenting the bill today that the legislation’s proposed COLA limitation would save $17 million annually. When presenting the bill, Benton thanked his fellow committee members for enduring the emails of many concerned TRS members. He announced his intention not to move HB 109 forward for a committee vote today and mentioned that legislative leaders requested he not pursue a vote at this time.
During public comment, several PAGE members effectively articulated concerns about HB 109. Craig Harper, PAGE Executive Director, spoke on behalf of PAGE and respectfully asked committee members to define the problem they are attempting to solve with proposed TRS reforms, to study the impact of proposed changes on current and future TRS members, and to involve educators in the process. It is not clear if the committee will vote on HB 109 at a later date.
The committee delayed action on several bills listed on the agenda, including a return to work bill,
HB 336
. The committee did pass
HB 830
, which seeks to raise the five percent alternative investment cap on public retirement systems to ten percent. Though the bill as currently written does not impact TRS because TRS is specifically excluded from investing in alternatives, Margaret Ciccarelli from PAGE testified before the group and alerted them to
SB 294
that would allow TRS to invest in alternatives. Ciccarelli warned that if both bills passed as currently written, up to ten percent of TRS could be invested in alternatives. She suggested that if both bills begin moving through the legislative process, one be amended to ensure that TRS alternatives are capped at only five percent.
-Margaret Ciccarelli
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House Appropriations Committee Approves Revisions to the 2020 Budget
The House Appropriations committee passed its
iteration of the Amended Fiscal Year 2020
(AFY 2020) budget today, which contains changes to the version first prepared by Gov. Brian Kemp. Under the House AFY 2020 spending plan, education funding will increase by $127 million if approved by the General Assembly. The House AFY 2020 budget does not appear to include an austerity cut to the state’s K-12 funding formula, the QBE formula. The possibility of an austerity cut was reported to the PAGE legislative team during our member day at the Capitol, which PAGE Legislative Director Margaret Ciccarelli shared with attendees.
Most of the funding increase is directed to the QBE formula. House lawmakers approved an increase of $104 million for the QBE, while Kemp proposed a bump of nearly $114 million. House Appropriations Chairman Terry England (R-Auburn) explained that the difference was due to “true-ups in the formula,” noting that the appropriations committee worked with updated information. Other changes that reflect true-ups include:
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Most of the other revisions the House proposes are reductions to programmatic cuts. Due to a decline in state revenue, Kemp directed state agencies to reduce their AFY 2020 budgets by four percent. Proposed cuts restored in the AFY 2020 budget include $1.5 million for state schools, $150,000 for Regional Education Service Agencies (RESAs), and travel expenses for school nutrition.
The AFY 2020 budget now moves to the full House for a vote. From there it will move to the Senate, where the education appropriations sub-committee has already begun its review.
-Claire Suggs
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House Education Subcommittee Passes Foster Care IEP Bill
The Academic Support Subcommittee of the House Education Committee passed
HB 855
by Rep. Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville) this afternoon. The bill would direct the State Board of Education to determine eligibility criteria for foster care students to receive special education services if the student has experienced trauma. While describing the bill, Wiedower explained his intent is to allow the individualized education program (IEP) process for students who are in foster care to begin immediately if the student has experienced trauma. Several special education teachers spoke regarding the bill, citing concerns about how it may interfere with the federal requirements included in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Rep. Chris Erwin (R-Homer) questioned how the bill would affect the funding formula for special education students. Wiedower responded that, since many foster care students would receive an IEP anyway, the bill would not change the net impact on funding. Instead, it would change the timing of the funding. The bill now moves on to the full House Education Committee for approval.
HB 764
by Rep. Todd Jones (R-South Forsyth), a bill that would allow unused properties owned by the State Properties Commission to be used by local charter schools or state charter schools, was pulled from the agenda.
The Academic Achievement Subcommittee of the House Education Committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on
HB 845
by Rep. Mike Glanton (D-Jonesboro). The bill would provide additional compensation for teachers with special education certification who serve in special education positions. As Glanton was unable to attend the meeting, Rep. Mike Cheokas (R-Americus), chair of the subcommittee, did not call the meeting to order.
-Josh Stephens
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Claire Suggs
Senior Education Policy Analyst
csuggs@pageinc.org
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Josh Stephens
Legislative Affairs Specialist
jstephens@pageinc.org
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Margaret Ciccarelli
Director of Legislative Services
mciccarelli@pageinc.org
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